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THE .DIVINE COMEDY, 
OF DANTE 


ray 


Translated into English Derse 


WITH NOTES 


BY 


JOHN AUGUSTINE WILSTACH 


AUTHOR OF ‘‘ THE VIRGILIANS”’ AND TRANSLATOR INTO ENGLISH 
VERSE OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF VIRGIL 


IN TWO VOLUMES 
VOL. II. 







KEES 


OF THE 


UN IVERSITY 
SCALIFORNS 


BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
Che Vituerside Press, Cambridge 
1888 


Mia 2 ecT)s 


Copyright, 1888, 
By JOHN AUGUSTINE WILSTACH, 
Lee Bok 
All rights reserved. 


The Riverside Press, Cambridge: 


Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. 





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CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. 


ek Soe 


CONTINUATION OF THE PURGATORIO. 


Canto : Pes: Page 
XVII. Sunset — Reverie — The Angel — Central 
Stars of the Commedia— The Fourth Ter- 

race — Nature. Spirit. Expiation ... I 
XVIII. The lofty Teacher — His Discourse — On the 
Soul — Mention of Beatrice — Examples of 
Diligence — Multitudes of Souls — Poetic 

Dream wees 9 
XIX. The Sirone= Fie Sone: The Fifth Permate 
— Hope and Justice —Adrian the Fifth — 

Servant of Servants— Alagia. . . 19 
XX. Virgil and Dante — Avarice — Hugh ‘Capat 
— Italian History — The modern Pilate — 
The trembling Mountain — Hemmed Py 

Mystery round ... 27 
XXI. Cleopas and aueiier — Virpil load Statius _— 
Above the Clouds — Statius in Discourse — 

The heroic Song—The Embrace ... . 40 
XXII. The Sixth Terrace — Prodigality — Jocasta — 
The Pollio— The Bards in mutual Discourse 
— The turning to the Right — The primal 

Age... 48 
XXIII. Virgil, Guide ond Comair <The weated 
Gluttons — Forese Donati— His Discourse 
— The Women of Florence — Beatrice de- 

sired .: . 58 

XXIV. The leaning Siiclin Wo Atarite ae Fourth — 
Buonagiunta — Forese prophesies — The 


iv 


Contents of Volume I. 





Purgatorio. 





XXV. 


XXVI. 


XXVII. 


XXVIII. 


XXIX. 


XXX. 


XXXL. 


XXXII. 


XXXIII. 


mighty Masters — Contemplation — The 
Angel : 

The Seventh Temes’ — The Lasctyions — The 
Origin of Physical Being — And of the Soul 
— Memory, saa Will — Eschatology 
of Dante “i 

The Spirits wonter; at ‘Dante _Theit ‘Cass 
tions addressed to him — He speaks of Bea- 
trice — Hymns—Shouts — Guido Guinicelli 
— Guitone 

The Angel — The Seaunbag Winaite _ ~ The 
Name of Beatrice prevails— The luminous 
Night — The Ascent to Eden — ei Mis- 
sion about to close . 

Eden, the Terrestrial Patarige = The Ex- 
quisite Landscape — Matilda — Her Dis- 
course — The Fall of Man— Lethe. Eunoé. 
The smiling Poets . 
The glowing East — Celestial Music - _ Te 
vocation — The Procession — The Car — And 
its Attendants — The Crash of Thunder 
The Polar Stars — Life’s eternal Crown — 
Beatrice appears — And addresses Dante — 
Emotion of Dante — Beatrice addresses the 
Angels — Her Mention of Virgil . 

Beatrice severe — Dante in Tears — Their 
mutual Discourse— Charms of Beatrice — 
Dante. Matilda. Lethe — Intercession of 
the Angels — Bowers of Eden bright 
Dante’s intense Love of Beatrice—The 
Soldiery of the Skies — Hymns, Shouts, Dis- 
course — Beatrice in Guard of the Car— 
Her Discourse — Fox, Eagle. ie _ 
Giant ; ; ake 
The seven Virtues _— Bunthos entuekods 
Dante — She predicts the near Future — 
Orbits of Thought — Exchange of exalted 
Sentiments — Matilda — Eunoé : 


66 


77 


87 


. 106 


<rts 


rae 


. 136 


» 145 


5, ERS 


Contents of Volume IT. 





Paradiso. 





zh 


III. 


VII. 


GENERAL ARGUMENT OF THE PARADISO 


THE PARADISO. 


. The marvellous Theme — The Poet’s Triumph 


— The Smile of Beatrice — Glaucus — The 
Sea of Being — The Will free . 

The celestial Argosy — The Sphere of the 
Moon — Its peculiar Atmosphere — Instruc- 
tions of Beatrice — As to the Heavens — The 
Seal of God — The Light of God 
Beatrice the Sun — Her Smiles — Piccarda — 
Worship, not Envy — The violated Cloister 
— Costanza 


Plato — Sczevola. Lawrence — Force and 
Will — Truth’s Bright Beam 


. Vows discussed — The divine Plan — _ The 


Wills of God and Man—Jephthah. Aga- 
memnon — The Sphere of Mercury — Radiant 
Justinian 


The Empire — The Trump pea — 
Titus — Italy .. 


divine — Beauties eternal — Bounty — Bliss 
— The Parents of the Race. 

The Sphere of Venus — The Principal- 
ities — Charles Martel of Hungary — His 
Discourse — Intellectual Powers — Bea — 
Aptitudes . 


. The sorrowing Mawes _ ated Taek _ Like 


. 164 


: . 188 
. Dante entranced — The Gans of the Soil — 


- 195 


‘ . 205 
. The Eagle of Ronis: — ‘The Rock of ‘Faith — 


. 214 
. Melody — The belted Nate — The Oras 


. 229 


» 237 


a Gem —A Ruby fine — Good from Evil —’ 


Boniface 


. The Sphere of the Sant Ke Lawn of the 


Planets — Inconceivable Brilliancy of Light 


. 247 


vi 


Contents of Volume I. 





Paradiso, 





XI. 


XII. 


XIII. 


XIV. 


XV. 


XVI. 


XVII. 


XVIII. 


XIX. 


XX. 


— Triumphant, vivid — Saint Thomas of 
Aquin — The Elevation of the Host — Voice 
unto Voice .. . . 260 
The Wings of Poesy — - The petcror of God — 
Two Princes — Saint Thomas of Assisium — 
The Stigmata—The Flock. . .. . . 270 
Song and Motion — Streams of Padiancee 
Celestial Warriors — Saint Dominic — War- 
rant to do Battle — Bonaventura — Courtesy . 279 
The starry Spirits — The Trinity — Atone- 
ment — Character-Germs — The hidden Yea r 
and Nay— Judgment. . . . 292 
Beatrice speaks — The Joy 5 the Blessed 
— Vision. Fervor. Will — Subsistences. 
Beauty of Beatrice — The pee of Mars — 
Arise and Conquer. . . - 301 
The sacred Chords — Fire in Aisteous — 
Sweet Hungering — The Smile of Beatrice — 
History of Florence — Primitive Simplicity — 
The execrable Race .. . - 308 
Pride of Ancestry — The Saisie ‘Spirit — 
Cacciaguida — Degeneracy of Florence — 
Her ancient Worthies — Rings in the Borgo 
—Buondelmonte .. . - 318 
Dante as Phaéthon — Gontupen ages 
Cacciaguida prophetic — War’s Darling — 
Dante’s Vicissitudes — Sunshine on golden 
Mirrors. . . - 330 
The Eyes of Beatrice — The Smile OS Beaiics 
— Crusaders — The radiant Squadrons — 
The Eagle—The Sphere of Jupiter . . . 339 
Novelty of the Theme — Discourse of the 
Eagle — Billows Billows race — Human Rea- 
son — God’s Judgments. — Political Predic- 
tions — National Calamities . . - 349 
The heavenly Lights — A River’s Marinus — 
The Eagle’s further Discourse — Like as a 
Lark — Living Hope — Redemption — Joy . 358 


Contents of Volume IT. vii 





Paradiso. 





XXI. 


XXII. 


XXIII. 


XXIV. 


XXV. 


XXVI. 
XXVII. 


XXVIII. 


xX EX. 


XXX. 


Semele — The Sphere of Saturn — The spark- 
ling Army — Saint Peter Damian — The 
eternal Statute — The degenerate Clergy . . 368 
Sweetness of Beatrice — The Sword of Heaven 
— Saint Benedict — His neglected Rule — 
The Sphere of the Fixed Stars — Last Salva- 
tion — The planetary System . . . - 378 
Beatrice sublime — Christ’s triumphant Hosts 
— Wisdom and Power — The stupendous 
Theme — Mary and Gabriel — Heavenly 
Harvests® 00.3 : . 388 
Beatrice vigilant — Saint Peter — What is 
Faith ?>— Substance and Evidence — Works 
—Creed— The Benediction ... - 396 
Dante’s personal Hopes — Saint tainee _ 
What is Hope? — The Theody high — The 
Scriptures old and new— Saint John . . . 404 
Charity in the Sense of Love — Beatrice. 
Healing in her Smile — The loftiest Mystery 
of the Skies — The Effulgence of Beatrice — 
Ray on Ray— The Good Supreme . . . . 414 
The Gloria — Vehemence of Saint Peter — 
War on the Baptized — Things heard reveal 
— The Sphere of Primal Motion — Time’s 
Roots — Fruit nutritious . . - 422 
Harmony’s Wings — The Cont “Point — 
The Heavens and Nature — The true celestial 
Norm — The three Triads — Truth revealed . 433 
Angels. Matter. Men — Every When and 
Every Where — Saint Jerome — Beatrice in 
Discourse — The Word of God — The 
Fables of the Pulpit— Unity . . . - 441 
The Sphere of the Empyrean — The euaicie 
Beauty of Beatrice — God’s immediate Pres- 
ence — A River of Light — The Rose of the 
Blessed — The Stoles of White — The Em- 
peror Henry — Boniface. . . . . . . . 450 


Vili 


Contents of Volume LI. 





Paradiso. 





XXXI. The mighty Flower — The Trinal Light — 


Beatrice enthroned — Saint Bernard — Dante 
lost in Wonder — The Oriflamme high . . 459 


XXXII. The Rose’s leafy Reach — The two Dispensa- 


tions — The infant Souls — The various Gifts 
of God— The Blessed Virgin — The Patri- 
archs and Apostles— Aspirations . . - 466 


XXXIII. Prayer of Saint Bernard — A noon-day Tors 


A Fountain pure — Emotion of Dante — 
Abounding Grace — Dante in Adoration — 
The Beatific Vision— Source of all Power 
and Glory. secs. sa Sle 


GENERAL INDEX . .. «4 + « « « « 483 





——— - a | 






fe 
XR NIVERSITY 
CAL LIFORNIAS 


ee — 


CANTO SEVENTEENTH. 
ARGUMENT: 


The sun sets. Dante falls into a trance, and in vision sees 
Itys the wife of Atrais, Haman, Lavinia. The vision, 
which thus furnished memorable examples of anger and 
its results, being ended, the Poets, guided by an-Angel, 
ascend to the fourth terrace, where the slothful undergo 
purgation, the voices of the spirits chanting the while: 
“Blessed are the peacemakers.” Night comes on and 
Virgil discourses. 


TIME: Evening of Easter Monday. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: The Angel. The spirits. Dante. The 
shade of Virgil. In vision, Lavinia. 


PERSONS APPEARING: Haman. Ahasuerus. Esther. Morde- 
cai. Amata. The spirits undergoing purgation. 


SEARCH through thy memory, Reader, for the time 
When, on an Alp, a pierceless mist thee lapped, 
Just as a mole his sod within is wrapped ; 

Then, when began the dense and vapory rime 
The air to tinge, and, dimmed, the Sun’s red 

sphere 
Seemed wading through a thickening heavenly © 
mere, 

And thine imagination will embrace 
What then I saw: that Sun whose evening glow 
Into the west sank down sedately slow. 


2 Purgatorio. 





Reverie. 





And, with my Master’s.faithful feet like pace —10 
Maintaining, came I from that cloud to rays 
Which on the lower Mount had spent their 

blaze. 

O Reverie fair! that from without dost steal 
Sometimes our senses far from heed or care 
E’en though around a thousand bugles blare, 

What moves thee, if our senses nothing feel? 
Moyes thee a light spontaneous in the sky, 

Or one which Will divine bids downward fly? 


Traced in my mind’s imaginings first there came 19 
That one’s impiety dire whose form was changed 
Into that bird which joys in melody strange. 

And here my mind kept so its inward frame, 

Was so in reverie wrapped, that place it gave 
To nought without that might admittance crave. 

Next showered into my lofty fantasy’s field 
One crucified, whose visage spoke of pride 
And rancorous rage wherein he fiercely died ; 


About him one who kingly power did wield, 28 
Ahasuerus great, Esther his wife, and nigh, 
In word and action blameless, Mordecai. 

As, of itself, this airy image sprung 
All into nothingness, just as when bursts 
A bubble which for failing water thirsts, 

Into my vision came a maiden young 
Who bitterly wept, and cried: “O queen, why 

sought : 

Thine angry mind to bring thyself to nought ? 


> 


hin ceo LIE oF 3RARS 


lin OF THE 


tv ERSITY 
Canto 4 i Ry, 


<—SALIFORTS 
The Angel. Sain eersaer | 


“To save Lavinia, self-slain thou, through spite, 37 
Thus me hast lost, and I must blend 
Tears for thine, mother, and another’s end.” 

As ceases sleep when comes a sudden light 
Startling the eyelids, and first quivering sighs 
The broken slumber ere it wholly dies, 

Thus from before me ceased those visions quite, 
Soon as upon my face effulgence smote, 

More vivid far than aught of earthly note. 








As round I turned to mark where we might be, 46 

I heard a voice: “The pass ye mount here 
find!” 

‘The voice me to its mandate so inclined 

And me so full of eagerness made to see 
The face of him who spoke from out such rays, 
I could not choose but in his face to gaze. 

But, as the Sun’s blaze doth the eyesight quell, 
While in its own excess its disk is veiled, 
E’en so before these rays mine eyesight quailed. 


“A spirit divine this is, who doth us tell, 55 
Without the asking, of our upward way, 

And doth himself conceal in ray on ray. 

Treats he our wants as his own wants treats man, 
For he the need who sees but waits request 
Almost as one refusing stands confessed. 

Now let our feet so guided seek the van, 

Let ’s mount with haste ere darkness intervene, 
Else must we wait till day again is seen.” 


4 Purgatorio. 





Central Stars of the Commedia. 





Thus spoke my Guide; a path we took which 
brings 64 
Unto a stairway, and as soon as were 
My footsteps pressed upon the lowest stair, 
Near me I felt a waving as of wings 
That fanned my face, and “ Blessed ” said “are ye 
The peacemakers, who are from anger free.” 
Above our heads uplifted to such length 
Were the last sunbeams, followed close by night, 
THAT FREQUENT STARS SHED FROM THE HEAVENS — 
THEIR LIGHT. 


“Why parted from me art thou, O my strength?” 73 
Within myself I said; for o’er-toiled thews 
To me their aid seemed almost to refuse. 

The stairway now had us to that point brought 
Which marked its final rise, and there stood we 
Still as at shore a bark arrived from sea. 

And I some little space allowed to thought, 

And strained, in that new height, my listening ear, 
Then counsel sought from mine Instructor dear: 


“Say, Father mine, what stain is here made pure? 82 
Although at outset of this circle, night 
Our steps arrest, let still thy speech give light.” 
And he to me: “ Here slackness doth mature ; 
Here indolent love of good finds quickened pace, 
And oars neglected bend to win the race. 
But give unto my words thy diligent care, 
And thou shalt more explicitly understand, 
And rich fruits taste from your so-cultured land.” 


Canto XVII. 5 


The Fourth Terrace. 








“ Neither Creator nor created e’er, gr 
My son, of love was destitute, whether flown 
From nature forth or spirit. This is to thee 

known. 

The natural ever without error was ; 

The other errs if bent on evil aims 
Or where it lags or, being excessive, flames. 

If natural love be governed by wise laws, 

And spiritual meekly moderates its delight, 
Then every joy is free from injury quite. 


‘But let it turn to ill, or ardor, more 100 
Or less than due, show in pursuit of good, 
Creator then by creature is withstdod. 

Hence th’ inference comes that love the core 
And seed is of each virtue in your souls 
And of each act which God for punishment 

holds. 

Now, since it cannot be but that love’s eye 
That which it loves doth kindly contemplate, 
All are secure from danger of self-hate ; 


*‘ And since our love cannot that One deny 109 
That First is, and from whom we all depend, 
Hatred of Him at once comes to an end. 

If I discriminate fairly, it must be 
That t’wards your neighbor love of ill doth lay. 
In three modes is such love born in your clay. 

There are who in their neighbor’s downfall see 
Preferment for themselves, and thence delight 
Have in the thought he fall may from his height. 


6 Purgatorio. 





Nature. Spirit, Expiation. 





“There are who fear power, favor, honor, fame, 1:8 » 
From them may slip if doth another rise, 
And thence the opposites they of all these prize. 
And there are they whom injury doth inflame, 
So that revenge they thirst for; it must needs 
Another’s harm from such ill-will proceeds. 
This threefold love below there is bewailed. 
Now of the other I would have thee learn, 
Which, seeking good, due rule and mode doth 
spurn. 


“All know that bliss exists, though vaguely 
veiled, 127 
A rest for mental strain, and heart and soul 
Of its bright, restful, ways desire control. 
But they who them seek out with love remiss 
And languid, penitence first being shown, 
In torments of this terrace must atone. 
And happiness flees pursuit in other bliss: 
A false felicity, not that essence blest 
It is of bliss which fruit and root attest. 


“The love in this pursuit too lavishly spent 136 
The terraces three above us put to pain, 
But this threefold division’s place to attain 

Seek thou thyself, upon its paths intent.” 


NOTES TO THE SEVENTEENTH CANTO. 


21. “ That bird.” An allusion, some think, to the story of 
the guilty slayer of her own son Itys, given by Ovid in the 
Sixth Book of his Metamorphoses ; but it is more probably 


Canto XVIL oes 


Notes. 








an allusion to the story of the innocent slayer of her own 
son Itylus, given by Homer in the Nineteenth Book of the 
Odyssey. 

26. “ One crucified.” Haman. Esther vii. 9, to. 

34. “A maiden young.” Lavinia, the bride of Aineas, and 
daughter of Queen Amata. The queen, devoted to Turnus, 
the ill-fated rival of Aineas, took her own life on learning of 
the defeat of her favorite. The story is told in the Twelfth 
Book of the Atneid. 

To this unfortunate queen Dante compares the Republic 
of Florence, in that famous letter to the emperor, Henry the 
Seventh of Germany, wherein the poet-exile urges the “noble 
Harry” to march upon her gates: “This is the impatient 
Amata, who, having refused the fated marriage, feared not 
to espouse her daughter to one forbidden by the Fates.” 
Herein Dante means that Florence had refused the rule of 
the Ghibellines, and had espoused her future to the destinies 
of the Guelphs. 

39. “And another's end.” In all the editions of Cary ac- 
cessible, including the latest and sumptuous one published by 
Cassell & Company, the text of Cary here reads “ a mother’s 
timeless end.” This is, possibly, a misprint for “ axother’s 
timeless end,” to wit, Turnus’s. Or (as the contextual phrase 
of Cary, “ere I fall,” is not in Dante) Cary may have under- 
stood Dante’s word “altrui” as referring, not to the death of 
Turnus, but to contemplated suicide on the part of Lavinia 
herself. This idea leads to the inference that Cary had not 
made himself acquainted with the character and career of 
Lavinia. 

53. “lu its own excess.” 

** Dark with excessive bright.” 
MILTon. 

67. “ Wings that fanned my face.” The Angel fanned with 
his wings the face of Dante in order to take from his forehead 
another P, that representing the sin of anger. 

68. “ Blessed are ye the peacemakers.” For ye “shall be 
called the children of God.” Jatthew v. 9. 


8 Purgatorio. 





Notes, 





72. “ Frequent stars shed from the heavens their light.” “Le 
stelle apparivan da piu lati.’ The first line of this tercet, 
line 70, marks THE MIDDLE POINT OF THE COMMEDIA. 

According to the authority of Lombardi, the name of the 
first student calling attention to the circumstance that each 
of the three divisions of the Commedia ends with the word 
“stars,” is Giuseppe De Cesare Napoletano. I believe my- 
self to be the first student of Dante calling attention to the 
circumstance that the middle sentence of the whole Com- 
media turns on the same word, “stars.” 

77. “And there stood we.” Statius, whose stay in Purga- 
tory seems to have been more than twelve hundred years, 
will relate that “for lukewarmness” he ran round this fourth 
terrace more than four hundred years, and that he lay pros- 
trate among the prodigals in the fifth more than five hundred 
years, thus devoting more than nine hundred years to the 
two terraces. ost, Canto xxi. line 68; Canto xxii. line 63. 

124. “ Below there.” On the lower terraces of the Moun- 
tain, the terraces of the proud, the envious, and the wrath- 
ful. On the present terrace are punished the slothful, the 
lukewarm. 


CANTO EIGHTEENTH. 


ARGUMENT: 


The Poets in conversation await the approach of morning. 
On its approach they meet a multitude of spirits, and hear 
exclamations urging to diligence. 


Time: Evening and night of Easter Monday. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: A multitude of spirits exclaiming 
against sloth. Alberto, Abbot of San Zeno. Dante. The 
shade of Virgil. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The spirits of the slothful undergo- 
ing purgation and in rapid motion. 


Hap his discourse now brought unto an end 
The lofty Teacher, and his look benign 
Sought in my face contentment’s pleasing sign ; 
And I, in whom thirst did with diffidence blend, 
Without was mute, but said within: “ Perchance 
I questionings make more than his patience 
grants.” 
But that true Father whose prompt care had 
kenned 
The timid wish that kept itself unsaid, 
Spoke, and before his voice my faltering fled, 


10 Purgatorio. 





Virgil’s Discourse. 





And said I thus: “ My Master, so my mind 10 
Illumination gains from splendors thine, 
That all thy scope with ease is rendered mine, 
Therefore I beg that thou, sweet Father kind, 
To me that love unfold thou deem’st the Sun 
Wherefrom all actions good and evil run.” 
“To what I now impart be thy clear ken 
Applied,” he said, ‘‘and henceforth know e’en 
nigher | 
How blindly err they who to lead aspire. 


“The soul by nature leans to love, and when 9 
By pleasure wakened into action, seeks 
That pleasing thing which to her promptings 
speaks. 
An image from some real outward thing 
Your apprehension draws ; of it makes show ; 
And t’wards it makes the soul’s inclinings grow. 
If thus a charm upon the soul ye bring, 
The inclination love is called, and bound 
Within you thence is natural pleasure found. 


“Then, just as upward mounts the heaven-born 
fire, 28 

By its inherent tendency, and there 
Its birthplace seeks, where it doth longest fare, 

So yields the captive soul unto desire, — 
Which is a spiritual motion, — nor doth rest 
Until of what it loves it be possessed. 

Now mayst thou see how from the truth they stray 
Who deem that, as it changes mood or phrase, 
Love merits in itself the meed of praise. 


Canto X VITI. II 


On the Soul. 








“Good always seem, perhaps, its substance may, 37 
Yet every seal ’s not good, nor defect lacks, 
While good may be the thing impressed, the 

wax.” 

“ Thy words,” I said, “and my leal mind the doubt 
I had, resolve, and love to me make plain, 
Yet still strives doubt a place once more to gain, 

For if to us love ’s offered from without, 

And if the soul none other footing hath, 
No merit’s hers, or right or wrong her path.” 


And he to me: “ What reason clear maintains 46 
Myself have power to tell ; remains a task 
Beyond for faith ; this do thou Beatrice ask. 

Each spiritual essence which a union gains 
With matter, wherewith yet it is not blent, 
Specific virtue draws from influence spent, 

Which is not felt unless it force attains, 

Nor proven but by the effect, as seen 
Life in the plant is when the leaves are green. 


“ But, still, of that remote source, whence we 
know 55 
The primal things, we ignorant are; we fail 
To see how first our souls allurements hail, 
Which glow in man as in the bee doth glow 
The honey-gathering zeal, an impulse mere 
Which praise nor greets, nor blame attacks 
severe, . 
But there ’s a principle, innate, supreme, 
The power that counsels ; and with virtue bold 
Its sway the threshold of assent should hold. 


12 Purgatorio. 





Mention of Beatrice. 





“And as its diligence is doth so esteem 64 
Your actions clothe, its duty being plain 
To winnow chaff and garner golden grain. 
Those who in learning sought the ultimate truth 
That innate freedom found, and, fame-en- 
wreathed, 
They moral precepts to the world bequeathed. — 
Grant then that from necessity, or in youth 
‘Or age, each love takes flame, the power ye hold 
Within ye by the which it is controlled. 


“This noble virtue, modest and sedate, 23 
Beatrice styles free will ; bear this in mind, 
If her this theme discussing thou shouldst find.” 
The Moon, now almost unto midnight late, 

Dim made the stars and rare, the while it rose 
As ’t were a kettle that with burnishing glows, 
And, ’gainst the heavens’ due course, that path 

pursued 
The Sun illumes, when one, in Rome’s streets met, 
Sardinia ’twixt and Corsica sees it set. 


And that great Shade, for whom is most imbued, 82 
’Mongst Mantuan towns, Pietola with renown, 
Had from my brow removed thought’s burdening 

frown. 

Whence I who reasoning full and wise and clear 
To all my questionings had received, now stood 
As one in dreamy reverie’s absent mood. 

But suddenly broke my reverie from our rear 
A troop of people that upon us poured 
As round the curve they came a hurrying horde. 


Canto XVIII. 13 


Examples of Diligence. 








And as Ismenus and Asopus found, 91 
When droughty Thebes soft showers from Bac- 
‘chus prayed, 


A rush at night on their parched valleys made, 
So they, along that terrace made their round, 

And their sure riders in that penitent race, 
_ Good will and holy love, made swift their pace. 
O’ertaking us, the throng entire moved on, 

A multitude vast, of whom two, in the lead, 

Spoke forth, with sorrowful accents, while at 

speed : 


“In haste the Mountains Mary blessed won; 100 
And Cesar, that he might Ilerda gain, 
His fangs in Marseilles thrust, then flew to 
Spain!” 
“QO haste,” the other shouted, “let not lost 
Be any time through lack of fervent zeal, 
For grace grows best in those who ardor feel! ” 
“O ye, in whom your fervor now ’s the cost 
Ye pay, perhaps, for slothful, careless aims, 
Of charity sweet neglectful and her claims, 


“This man who lives — to you I tell no lie— 109 
Will seek the terrace higher when darkness ends, 
So point us out the path which thither tends.” 

So spoke my Guide, and some who hurried by 
Said: “If allowed, come, follow us on behind, 
And the cleft cliff thou seekest thou shalt find ; 

We may not loiter; so we dread to pause 
That stay we cannot ; and we pardon ask 
If we discourteous seem in this our task. 


14 Purgatorto. 





Multitudes of Souls. 





“J, San Zeno’s abbot at Verona was, 118 
Beneath good Barbarossa’s able sway, 
A sway Milan laments unto this day; 
And hath one foot already in his grave 
He who that monastery yet shall weep, 
And his abuse of power, which there would keep 
His son, whom ills of flesh and soul deprave, 
And whose base birth should give him station due 
In evil wrought ’gainst its own pastor true,” 


And whether here he mute was, or said more, 127 
I know not, he so far us had o’erpassed, 
But this I heard, and memory this holds fast. 
And he who aid always unto me bore 
Me led: “ Turn now, for here are two who tear, 
With eager teeth, sloth’s ill-clad body bare!” 
These closed the throng, and this they shouted: 
“They 
’Fore whom the sea fled opened were first dead 
Ere pressed their heirs on Jordan’s banks their 
tread! 


‘‘ And they who with A®neas did not stay, 136 
To bide fatigue, and see the end of all, 
Gave glory up, to feebleness soft in thrall ! ” 
Then, when from us the final flickering gleam 
Of those swift souls had passed, there came a_ 
thought 
Into my mind, with varying fancies fraught, 
Whence others came, in one continuous stream, 
Which me o’erwhelmed in reverie’s peaceful waves 
And satisfaction which nought further craves, 


Canto XVIII. 15 


Poetic Dream. 








And meditation changed was into dream. 145 


NOTES TO THE EIGHTEENTH CANTO. 


1. “ His discourse.” With Dante’s phrases here Cary sug- 
gests that we compare Plato (Protagoras, v. 3, p. 123 of Bip. 
edit.); and Apollonius Rhodius, i. 513; and Milton: 

“ The Angel ended, and in Adam’s ear 


So charming left his voice that he awhile 
Thought him still speaking, still stood fixed to hear.” 


- 3. “ Contentment’s pleasing sign.” It should be observed 
that Virgil here employs towards Dante what may be termed 
an investigating attitude. For this peculiarity of attitude the 
reason is the obscure air of night. The night was, as yet, 
moonless. 

5. “ Your apprehension.” The apprehension, the will, 
which is free to act, and which acts on its own responsi- 
bility. The soul awaits for and receives and entertains that 
which the will brings to it. 

30. “ Its birthplace seeks.” We here again meet with that 
sublime philosophy of Dante touched upon in the Sixteenth 
Canto of the present division of the Commedia, the supreme 
desire of all things in nature to regain their source, and the 
ultimate destination of the soul as obedient to the same law. 
This, indeed, seems to be the controlling idea in the Dan- 
tean eschatology. See the note to line go of the Canto just 
cited. 

53 “ Life in the plant.” “ Form,” say the Scholastic philos- 
ophers, “is the passing from the Potential to the Actual.” 
In the same sense, Saint Thomas, Summa xvi. 1, says that 
“ Whatever is Act is Form.” 

78. “ As’twere a kettle that with burnishing glows.” 


‘* Fatta com’ un secchione che tutto arda.”’ 


Landino, followed by Cary, supposes that here the word 
should be not “ secchione” but “ scheggione,” the latter word 
meaning “crag,” and being more poetical than the term 


16 Purgatorio. 





Notes. 





“bucket,” or “kettle.” The present translator was so for- 
tunate as to come upon this portion of his translation, and 
upon this suggestion of these worthy Danteans, on the very 
day of the moon mentioned by Dante as that on which the 
Poets looked out upon that orb from the terrace of the peni- 
tent sluggards on the Purgatorial Mountain, five days after the 
full. His date was the 26th day of December, 1885. He had 
less than an hour to wait, and no change of posture to make. 
He could see the Moon as she rose into the heavens, as he 
sat at his desk, and, luckily, the sky was cloudless. -At about 
twenty minutes before eleven o’clock the Moon appeared. As 
he observed this Moon, he should say that neither term aps 
plied, but rather bucket than crag. The moon was a deep bowl 
rather than a bucket. It was somewhat more than a hemi- 
sphere ; the wide mouth of the bowl was tipped over towards 
the south, the deviation from the perpendicular being about 
fifteen degrees. To his eye it seemed a kettle of brass bur- 
nished, and in form identical with that vessel which, in the 
military commissariat, is termed a camp-kettle, and in agricul- 
tural economy a sugar-kettle. The round bottom, the wide 
mouth it had of these kettles, a shape seen in the kettle hat 
of the knights of the Middle Ages. 7 

79. “ That path pursued.” Dante’s meaning is that when 
the Sun is in the same sign as that in which the Moon then 
was, namely, the sign of the Scorpion, the Sun, to the inhabit- 
ants of Rome, sets between the islands of Corsica and Sar- 
dinia. 

82. “ Most imbued... Pietola.’ Because Pietola, now 
Andes, was the birthplace of Virgil. 

gi. “ Zsmenus and Asopus.” Rivers in Thebes on whose 
banks the votaries of Bacchus crowded at night beseeching 
him for rain to revive their vineyards. 

100. “Jn haste the Mountains Mary blessed won.” “ And 
Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with 
haste.” Luke i. 39. 

IOI, 102. “Cesar... flew to Spain.” Leaving Brutus 
and Tribonius at Marseilles to prosecute the siege of that 


Canto XVIII. 17 


Notes. 








city, Czsar hastened to Ilerda (now Lerida) to attack the 
forces of Pompey. Lucan, Pharsalia, Books iii. and iv.; 
Cesar, De Bello Civili, Book i. 

118. “Sax Zeno’s abbot.” Unknown, except in the verse 
of Dante. 

119. “ Good Barbarossa.” Born 1121, died 1190, the good 
Barbarossa (Redbeard) was Frederick the First, Emperor of 
Germany, grandfather of Frederick the Second. Barbarossa 
conducted severe campaigns against Milan, Brescia, Placenza, 
and Cremona. German popular tradition represents him as 
sitting in a cave in the Kipphauser Mountains, in front of 
him a stone table through which his wonderful beard (now 
possibly white) has grown. The tradition indicates the 
peculiar regard in which he was held by the people. 

Longfellow suggests that Barbarossa’s gallant champion- 
ship of the rights of the temporal power was what endeared 
him to Dante. But this circumstance derives qualification 
from the fact that Barbarossa was in full reconciliation with 
the pope long before his death, and that, at the pope’s re- 
quest, he entered upon the crusade which cost him his life. 
This reconciliation, and this death in a glorious cause, may 
have suggested to Dante to call him good. There is another 
reason: the emperor’s last wife — he had divorced his first 
—bore the name, beloved by Dante, of Beatrice, and this 
circumstance in connection with yet another, that Frederick 
was a person of great charms of character and person, must 
have endeared his name to Dante. The emperor is said, 
indeed, to have possessed personal characteristics closely 

resembling those of the Poet. 
133. “ First dead.” Numbers xxxii, 11, 12. 
136. “ Gave glory up.” 
** Acestes hast thou here, a Dardan, born 
Of race divine. Him take into thy plans. 
And him a willing ally shalt thou find. 
To him the people of the lost ships give. 
And to them add all who have irksome found * 


Thy noble enterprise and thine affairs. 
The men grown old, the matrons wearied out 


18 


Purgatorio. 





Notes. 





With life at sea, and whatsoe’er thou hast 
Of weak or timid, seek thou out, and them 
In walls permit within these lands their limbs 
To rest, and by the King’s permission given, 
They shall their new-built town Acesta call.” 
Nantes to Eneas, Fifth Aineid, 712. 


_— 


CANTO NINETEENTH. 


ARGUMENT: 


The dawn of the third day approaches. The Poets meet the, 
Siren. As the Siren is addressing them, Philosophy at- 
tacks her. An Angel fans from Dante’s forehead the P of 
sloth, and attends the Poets to the fifth terrace, devoted to 
_the purgation of the avaricious, prostrate on the earth, and 
weeping. Dante converses with the shade of Pope Adrian 
the Fifth. 


TIME: Dawn of Easter Tuesday. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: An Angel. Philosophy. Pope Adrian 
the Fifth. A spirit. The Siren. - 


PERSONS APPEARING: Shades of the avaricious prostrated 
and in lamentation. 


Tuat hour it was, when of the heat of day 
No lingerings the Moon’s cold beams 0 erpowered, 
By Earth, perhaps by Saturn’s, influence, 
showered, 
When in the Orient, ere dawn’s whitening gray, 
The geomancer sees arise and fade 
His Greater Fortune which the stars have made, 


Into my dream a stammering woman came, 


Whose eyes were strained, whose feet were illy 
used, 

Whose hands were lame, whose face was tint- 
abused. 


20 Purgatorio. 





Her Song. 





I looked at her, and as the sunshine’s flame 10 
Cheers chilly limbs benumbed by nightly cold, 
E’en thus my gaze from her the frost unrolled. 

Tongue, limbs, in little while their faculties gained, 
And came once more health’s hue into her face, 
With love’s own light illumed and wildering grace. 

When thus again fair speech she had attained, 

She such a strain melodious poured along | 
That scarce could I have torn me from her song. 


“T,” thus she sang, “I am the siren sweet, 19 
Who mariners brave unman upon the mere, 
Such dear delight one feels my notes to hear. 

I from his course Ulysses drew discreet, 
Enchanted by my voice, and he who me 
Once sees, contented, seldom seeks to flee.” 

While yet her mouth was open, there was seen 
A Lady, saint-like, bright, with well-knit frame, 
Close to my side, to put her unto shame. 


“Virgil, O Virgil!” with a stern, vexed mien, 28 
““Who’s this?” she said; and he now forward 
came 
With eyes fixed fast upon that goodly dame. 
She seized the other, and her front made bare, 
And bared her belly, and her garments rent ; 
Stench rose, and thus from me my slumber went. 
Mine eyes I turned, and saw good Virgil there: 
“Three times at least,” he said, “I’ve called 
thee ; rise, | 
And let us t’wards the ascent bend searching 
eyes,” 


Wy TY 
Canky we P*® 21 
The Fifth Peetage_ 


I rose; and was already day’s full glow 37 
With all the sacred Mountain’s circles blent, 
And smote our backs his arrows as we went. 

Behind was I, and held my forehead so 
As one whose mind is burdened down with 

thought 
Till he to seem a bridge-pier arched is brought ; 
When heard I said: “Come, here the stairway 
springs !” 
And in a voice so gentle, sweet and bland, 
As ne’er met human ear on mortal strand. 











With marshalling bright of swan-like, open wings 46 
He who had spoken guided us along 
To two sheer walls of solid granite strong, 
And then his pinions moved he, and us fanned, 
- While he affirmed that they that mourn are blest, 
For they shall comfort have and holy rest. 
“What aileth thee? On what’s thine heaviness 
planned? 
Why bent to earth?” began my Leader good, 
We now being higher than where the Angel stood. 


And I: “A vision new with such demur 55 
Me fills, and so controls this heart of mine 
That it my spirit hesitates to resign.” 
* Didst thou behold that old enchantress, her 
Whose wiles alone above us lead to grief?” 
He said, “and how from her is gained relief? 
Enough. Now let thine heels spurn earth ; now raise 
Aloft thine eyes, and fix them on the lure 
The King Eternal whirls through orbits pure.” 


22 Purgatorio. 





Hope and Justice. 





E’en as the falcon who his feet surveys, 64 
Then seeks the sky, and, eager, stretches on, 
By strong desire of food to such flight drawn, 
So I the call obeyed, long as the rise 
Of stairways mounting through the granite riven 
Sent me up nearer to the planes of heaven. 
On the fifth terrace when I set mine eyes 
People I saw upon it strewn, who wept 
While, downward turned, they miserably crept. 


“My soul hath cleavéd to the dust,” I heard, 73 
With sighs that came from such a depth of woe, 
That what the words were scarcely could one 

know. 

““O ye elect of God, by him preferred, 

Whom Hope and Justice wait on in your pain, 
Us lead to where we higher ascents may gain.” 

‘“‘If our prone attitude hard ye here are spared, 
And would in readiest mode the height attain, 
See that your right hands t’wards the brink 

remain.” 


The Poet thus inquired : the answer fared 82 
From those in front of us some little space, 
And in its words I saw of others trace. 

And with my Liege’s glance mine, querying, played ; 
Whence he, at once interpreting what I meant, 
A cheerful sign me gave of his assent. 

When free to act I found myself thus made, 
T’wards that same shade I drew, and o’er him 

stood, 
Because his words had given to inference food, 


Canto XTX. 23 


Adrian the Fifth. 








And said: “O Shade, in whom the penitent tear 9: 
Makes God propitious to the earnest prayer, 
Resign for me awhile thy greater care. 

Say who thou wast, and why do thus appear 
Your backs turned upward, and if I in aught 
Can serve thee, there wherefrom my journey ’s 

brought.” 

And he: “Why Heaven our backs turns t’wards 

its arch 

Learn soon, but this first know, thou whose 
thought soars, 

That I of Peter the successor was. 


“ Siestri ’twixt and Chiaveri march 100 
A beautiful river’s waves, and from its name 
My lineage draws its title, known to fame. 

A month and somewhat o’er of trial me taught 
How weighs the mantle down him who from mire 
It guards; are feathers all loads else that tire. 

All late, alas! was my conversion wrought 
But when the Roman Shepherd’s staff I held 
How false a dream our life is I beheld. 


“T saw that to the heart it gave not rest, 109 
And that therein no prouder height stood forth ; 
Thence ’t was of this I found the priceless worth. 

For till that time a soul I was distressed, 

From God remote, devoured by avarice; now, 
Thou seest how low this punishment doth me bow. 

Whereto doth avarice lead is here declared 
In moods so meek wherein our souls are cleansed, 
And on this Mount no sin more pain attends ; 


24 Purgatorio. 





Servant of Servants. 





“For, as our eyes, by earthly things ensnared, 1:8 
Failed things above to heed, doth justice here 
Them with the earth merge in this mode severe. 

As avarice had of good our liking quelled, 

And us inert made and our faculties faint, 
So here doth Justice hold us in restraint, 

Our feet and hands to fetters’ bonds compelled, 
And long as it shall please our Sovereign Lord, 
We await, immovable, his blessed word.” 


I on my knees had fallen, and sought to speak; 127 
But, ere my wish had framing, and he, through 
His listening only, of mine homage knew, 

** Wherefore,” he said, “‘ mak’st thou this reverence 

meek?” 
**Compunction moved me that I stood so nigh 
To one who bears your titled dignity high.” 

“Up, brother,” he exclaimed, “ regain thy feet, 
For I thy fellow-servant am, nor thine 
Alone — all men’s — towards one Power divine. 


“Tf ever thou those holy words didst meet 136 
Of evangelic truth which say ‘ Nor be 
In marriage given,’ my reason thou dost see. 

And now no more, but go thy ways, I pray, 
Because thy presence doth my tears make cease 
Which, as thou saidst, must ripen us for that 

peace. 

A grandchild mine upon the earth doth stay, 
Alagia, of her own mind good, unless 
Our house’s training teach her to digress. 


a 


Ee ee ee a 








Canto XIX. : 25 
Alagia. 
* And all I have, she is, on earth this day.” 145 


NOTES TO THE NINETEENTH CANTO. 


6. “ Greater Fortune.” Geomancy was, originally, as the 
name implies, earth-divination — the prediction of the future 
by an arrangement of pebbles on the earth or dots made in 
the sand. The Greater Fortune was, naturally, a lucky com- 
bination of these pebbles or dots, suggested by the order, or 
imagined order, or disorder, of certain stars in the constel- 


lations of the Waterman and the Fishes, and its form sug- 


gested a tuning-fork, or a hand-mirror, or the trident of 
Paracelsus, thus: 


The thing seems puerile, but Dante finds it impossible to 
keep aloof from anything savoring, in however remote a 
degree, of astronomy. It should not be forgotten that, two 
hundred years after the date of Dante, Paracelsus was con- 
sulted by Erasmus. 

7. “ Woman.” Worldly happiness, sensual pleasure. 

15. “ Love's own light.” 

“A smile that glowed 


Celestial rosy red, love’s proper hue.” 
MILTon. 


26. “ A Lady.” Reason, Philosophy. 

39. “ Smote our backs his arrows.” The time being just 
after sunrise, and the position of the sun being in the north- 
east, and the sea being always to the right of the Poets (ost, 
this Canto, line 81, and Canto xxii. line 122), it follows that 
they were now on the north side of the Mountain, walking 
towards the southwest. 

50. “ They that mourn.” Matthew v. 4. 

58. “ Didst* thou behold?” The intimation is that Virgil, 


26 Purgatorio. 





Notes. 





uninformed by Dante, and of his own knowledge, knew the 
incidents of the dream. 

59. “ Above us lead to grief?’ To the terraces of the 
avaricious, the gluttonous, and the lustful. 

73. “ My soul.” Psalm cxix. 

81. “See that your right hands wards the brink remain.” 
See Canto xxii. at line 122. 

99. “ That 1.” 


“** Scias quod ego fui successor Petri.” 


The spirit which speaks is that of Pope Adrian the Fifth. 
By birth a Genoese, he was nephew of Pope Innocent the 
Fifth. Infirm when raised to the papacy in 1276, he survived 
that event only a month and nine days. To his elevation to 
the papacy Dante attributes his regret for the avarice which, 
Dante alleges, had ruled his life. It is observable that this 
pontiff’s elevation and death took place in Dante’s eleventh 
year. Adrian’s niece, mentioned later in the Canto, was one 
of Dante’s benefactors during his exile. 

101. “A beautiful river.” The Lavagna, which gave name 
to the Counts of Lavagna. 

117. “ Vo sin more pain attends.” Saint Bernard: “ By the 
vice of avarice men of religion are most vehemently afflicted.” 

134. “Servant.” Revelation xix. 10. 

138. “ Marriage.” Matthew xxii. 30. 

142. “ Alagia.” The niece of the pontiff, and wife of 
Marcello Malaspina. Their hospitable residence afforded 
Dante an asylum in the year 1307. To this lady, or to Dante 
as her guest, were sent from Florence, some say, the first six 
Cantos of the Inferno. 


CANTO TWENTIETH. 


ARGUMENT: 


Avarice and prodigality undergo purgation. The Poets 
hear lamentations and rejoicings, and Dante converses with 
Capet, who rehearses a number of historical instances. A 
great trembling of the Mountain is felt, caused by the 
moving aloft of a purified soul. This soul, as will be seen 
in the next Canto, is Statius, a Roman Poet, contemporary 
with the Emperor Titus. 


TIME: Morning of Easter Tuesday. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: The lamenting spirits. The rejoicing 
spirits shouting the Gloria in Excelsis. Hugh Capet. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The shade of Virgil, and numerous 
spirits. 


ILL strives one’s will against a will more wise; 
Therefore to please him, not myself, I drew 
The sponge out of the water not soaked through. 

I onward moved, moved him too I so prize, 

My Leader, skirting where space offered small, 
As when press battlements close upon the wall ; 

For they who drop by drop through sad eyes pour 
That malady which doth all the world infect 
Left on the brink small margin to elect. 


28 Purgatorio, 





Avarice. 





Accurst be thou, vile wolf! whose gorge doth 
more 10 
Inglut of prey than every beast beside, 
Yet stands with unchecked hunger open wide ! 
Ye orbs of heaven! round whom is here below, 
As some suppose, our mortal destiny coiled, 
When will he come through whom she shall be 
foiled ? 
Onward we went with footsteps brief and slow, 
And I attentive to the shades, whose tears 
And piteous wailing smote mine eyes and ears. 


And one in front of us I chanced to hear 19 
‘“‘ Sweet Mary!” say amidst those mingling woes 
As doth a dame in childbirth’s twinging throes. 

The voice kept on : “ How poor thou wast and drear 
Shows that low roof within that humble town 
Where’ thou didst lay thy sacred burden down.” 

And afterwards this: ‘“O good Fabricius, thou 
Didst virtue choose with poverty’s pangs allied 
Rather than wealth to vice’s baseness tied !” 


These words with pleasure did me so endow 28 
That further on I drew that I might seek 
To know somewhat of him who did them speak. 

Again he spoke, and this time was his word 
Of Nicholas’ gifts on maidens poor bestowed, 
That they might tread with honor youth’s fair 

road. 

“O soul, whose excellent words I just have heard,” 
I said, “tell me who wast thou, and why raise 
No lips but thine to such examples praise. 


Canto XX. 29 


Hugh Capet. 








“ Not without recompense sure shall be thy boon 37 
If I return unto its end to bring 
That life which flies upon a restless wing.” 

And he: “Ill tell thee, not that may attune 
With mine congenial prayers, but for the grace 
That, ere thou diest, shineth in thy face. 

I was the root of that plant yielding ill 
Which so the Christian world doth cast in shade 
That gathering there of good fruit’s seldom 

made ; 


“But if Douay and Ghent and Bruges and Lille 4 
Had power, soon vengeance would it smite, 
And pray I so of Him whose judgment ’s right. 

Hugh Capet called was I upon the earth; 

Me sire the Louises and Philips own, 
They who have lately filled of France the throne. 

To a Parisian butcher I owe birth; 

And, when the ancient kings had passed away, 
Save only one, him clothed in cloth of gray, 


*T found the reins of rulership in my hands, 55 
And power abounding such for public ends 
And round me such a hedge of helpful friends, 
That placed the widowed diadem of those lands 
Was on the head of mine own son, and brings 
From him its lineage down this race of kings. 
Till the great dower of Provence had removed 
Out of our lowly blood the sense of shame, 
Not strong it was, yet harm none from it came. 


30 Purgatorio. 





Italian History. 





“Then was it lies and force keen terrors proved, 64 
And then took Ponthieu, for amends, its sword, 
And soon was Normandy’s and Gascony’s lord. 

Charles came to Italy next, and, for amends, 

Slew youthful Conradin, and then to heaven 
The Angelic Teacher, for amends, was given. 

A time I see which rapidly hither wends, 

When shall from France another Charles appear 
To flaunt more widely him and his kin near. 


“Unarmed he goes, excepting with that lance 73 
The arch-traitor bore, and that so deftly bears 
That he the bowels of poor Florence tears. 

He thence not land shall gain, but shall advance 
In sin on sin, whose force shall be more strong 
As lighter he doth deem such hideous wrong. 

I see the other, just escaped, recaught 
On ship-board, his own daughter sell, as trade 
The Corsairs females they their slaves have made. 


“OQ Avarice, what b’yond this couldst thou have 
sought 82 
To make my blood so thine own proper fund 
That bartering its own flesh hath not it stunned! 
That may past ill and future sink compared, 
I see the flower-de-luce Alagna take 
And Christ in his own Vicar captive make. 
I see him mocked again ; for him prepared 
The vinegar sop and torturing gall again ; ot 
And, living thieves between, I see him slain. 


Canto XX. 31 


The modern Pilate. 








“The modern Pilate yet doth not relent, 91 
But, in his violent course, scorns all decrees 
And seeks the Temple’s courts through evil seas. 

O God, my Sovereign, let me taste content 
Through seeing the secret vengeance which thy 

wrath 
Shall make seem sweet when strewed upon their 
path! 

What I was overheard by thee to say 
Of that sole bride the Holy Ghost doth claim, 
And whereof thou wert querying, this the aim 


“And theme is whereto all here humbly pray __ 100 
While lasts the daylight : when the darkness falls 
It to a different utterance us recalls. 

Then do we base Pygmalion’s name repeat 
Whom thirst of-gold led into frightful crimes, 
Who traitor, thief, and parricide was betimes. 

We find then greedy Midas’ story meet, 

And that disgrace his thirsty soul did quaff, 
Whereat one ne’er can quell the rising laugh. 


“ Doth, then, each one the fond Achan record, 109 
And how he stole the spoils, so that the fear 
Of Joshua’s anger seems to sting him here. 
Sapphira next we blame and him her lord ; 
The hoof-strokes Heliodorus felt we praise 
And the whole Mount doth in abhorrence raise 
- Of Polymnestor slayer of Polydore. 
And last our voices swell: ‘O Crassus, rolled 
Beneath thy tongue, how now doth taste thy 
gold?’ 


32 Purgatorio. 





The trembling Mountain. 





‘“‘ The voice we speak in doth not always soar, 8 
But some speak low if promptings such are theirs, 
But each along the general chorus bears. 

Therefore alone I was not when my song 
Rehearsed that blessedness high we sing by day, 
But no voice else was heard the words to say.” 

From him we had already moved along, 
And were our efforts using to make speed, 

That we might unto yet higher scenes proceed, 


When I perceived, as from a vast weight’s fall, 127 
The Mountain tremble. Thence me seized a chill 
As tremors him conveyed to death will fill. 

Compared with this were Delos’ tremblings small 
When there Latona made her nest divine, 

To bring to birth the eyes that make heaven 
shine. . 

Then upon all sides rose a vehement shout, 
Which brought my Master promptly to my side, 
Who me bade: “ Fear not, I am still thy Guide.” 


“Glory!” the sound resounded all about 136 
From those who near enough were to mine ear 
To catch the bursts that now rose high and 

clear : 

“Glory in the highest be to God!” Until 
The trembling ceased no single breath we stirred, 
Even as the shepherds who that song first heard. 

Then did we turn our journey to fulfil, 

And watched our footsteps midst the shades 
whose plaint 
Again rose piteous for their long restraint. 





Canto XX. 33 


Hemmed by Mystery round. 








Ne’er in my breast had I so great strife found 145 
Of ignorance struggling with desire to know, 
Unless obscure my memory’s records grow, 

As in that moment, hemmed by mystery round ; 
But haste made me from questioning quite for- 

’ bear, 

And of myself I nought could answer there, 

So fared I on in dread and reverie bound. 


NOTES TO THE TWENTIETH CANTO. 


2. “ To please him.’ Pope Adrian the Fifth, with whom 
Dante had conversed in the preceding Canto. 

10. “ Wolf.” Avarice. 

15. “ When will he come.” Dante is generally supposed 
to refer here to his benefactor Can Grande della Scala, the 
greyhound of the First Canto of the Inferno. 

23. “ That humble town.” Bethlehem. 

25. “ Fabricius.” Caius Fabricius Lucinus, a Roman states- 
man, general, consul, and censor, who, after the highest 
employments in the state and in the army, died so poor that 
the government was obliged to provide him a funeral and to 
give marriage portions to his daughters. Virgil extols him 
in the Sixth Book of the A<neid, and Dante in the Second of 
the De Monarchia. 

32. “ Nicholas.” ‘This is Saint Nicholas, monk, abbot, and 
finally bishop, of Myra,a marvel of good works, and the 
patron saint of children, sailors, and travellers. The story 
alluded to in the text is a most touching one, and is related 
with much sweetness and fervor of diction by Miss Eliza 
Allen Starr, in the second series of her Patron Saints. A 
nobleman found himself reduced to such poverty that his 
only relief seemed to him to be the bargaining away of the 
chastity of his three daughters. On three successive nights, 
by stealth, Nicholas threw a bag of gold into the house of 
the despairing man, and thus provided a marriage-portion for 


34 Purgatorio. 





Notes. 





each of his daughters. On the last night, the father, laying in 
wait, made prize of the saint, who urged him to tell no man. 

36. “ Mo lips but thine.” This will be explained by Hugh 
Capet further on in the Canto. 

43. “ The root.” Hugh Capet, the present interlocutor of 
Dante, is not the spirit of the King Hugh Capet, but that of 
the King’s father, Hugh Capet the elder, Duke of France, 
Count of Paris. ‘These Capets were ancestors of the Philips 
and Louises who, for two centuries and a half, from.1060 to 
1316, occupied the throne of France. The “ plant yielding 
ill” is Philip the Fair who assumed the throne in 1285, a wily, 
selfish, rapacious, vindictive king. The “vengeance” im- 
precated upon him by Dante came in 1302, at the Battle of 
Courtray, wherein the king lost his life. This battle, from 
the number of well-equipped knights unhorsed in it, was 
called the Battle of the Spurs of Gold. 

52. “ Butcher.” This phrase, through its ambiguity, was 
calculated to put the French legitimists into a quandary, and 
it is possible that Dante used it to annoy them. A French 
prince, Charles of Valois, was, next to Pope Boniface, Dante’s 
most intense aversion. The ambiguity of the phrase gave 
the French the choice of the two horns of the dilemma, 
either to admit the plebeian origin of the Capetian family, 
or to insist upon the bloodthirstiness of its remote ancestor. 
Francis the First concluded to reject both, and with them, 
Dante and the Commedia, and he forbade the reading of the 
Commedia in his dominions. We may well suppose that 
the announcement of the royal pleasure in this regard set 
the French to buying the work in quantities, and studying 
it in detail. These abused French legitimists, and their un- 
happy genealogical predicament, are discussed by Villani, 
Benvenuto, Pasquier, Ducange, and others. 

53. “Save only one.” The Man in the Cloth of Gray, the 
last of the Carlovingian line. His name and identity, like 
that of the Man in the Iron Mask, remain a mystery. Ru- 
dolph, Charles of Lorraine, Charles the Simple, and Louis of 
Outre-Mer have all been named, but all as mere conjectures. 











Canto XX. 35 


Notes. 








61. “ Dower of Provence.” ‘The territory of Provence was 
the dower which Raymond Berenger gave with his daughter 
Beatrice who married Charles of Anjou, brother of Saint 
Louis. This marriage, and this acquisition of territory, gave 
the Capetians a standing. The two sisters of Beatrice had 
married, respectively, Henry the Third of England and 
Richard of Cornwall, king elect of Germany. 

65. “ For amends.” ‘The style is here ironical. Dante here 
details the conquests and usurpations of Philip the Fair and 
Charles of Anjou. 

68. “ Conradin.” Son of the Emperor Conrad the Fourth, 
a youth of sixteen, possessed of great charms of person and 
character. In 1268, by order of Charles of Anjou, he was 
beheaded in the public square of Naples, after a mock trial, 
and by the order of a single judge, for the sole offence of 
fighting gallantly for his hereditary throne. Milman, Ladin 
Christiqnity, xi. 3, gives an affecting account of this event. 

69. “ The Angelic Teacher.’ Saint Thomas of Aquin. 
Dante seems here to adopt the story which makes Charles of 
Anjou amenable as guilty of compassing the life of the saint, 
who died, in 1274, at the convent of Fossa Nuova in the 
Campagna, on his way to attend the Council of Lyons. But 
that his death was an unnatural one, the result of poison ad- 
ministered by a physician at the instigation of Charles, as has 
been asserted, rests only upon the wild gossip of wild times. 

71. “ Another Charles.” Charles of Valois, brother of 
Philip the Fourth of France. Dante here compares this 
Charles to Judas. By Charles of Valois, whom Dante rec- 
ognized merely as the tool of Boniface, Dante was expelled 
as a White Guelph, a churchman with imperialistic leanings. 
The expulsion had the effect to make the Poet a Black Ghib- 
elline, an imperialist with a warm side for honest church- 
men. 

76. “ Not land.’ An allusion to the nickname of Charles 
of Valois, “ Sans terre,” Senza terra, Lackland. 

79. “ The other.” Charles the Second, son of Charles of 
Anjou, who endeavored to recover Sicily to the French, after 


36 Purgatorio. 





Notes. 





the revolution known as the “Sicilian Vespers.” He mar- 
ried his daughter to Azzo the Sixth, of Este, and Dante says 
he did it for money. 

28. “ O Avarice!” 


* To what wilt thou not mortal bosoms drive, 

Thou cursed thirst for gold ! ” 

. Third Jineid, 6. 

86. “ Flower de luce.” The ancient royal banner of France, 
so named, either from a certain species of marsh-/¢/y, or from 
the River Zys, on the banks of which this species of lily 
abounded. 

“© flower-de-luce, bloom on, and let the river 
Linger to kiss thy feet! 
O flower of song, bloom on, and make forever 


The world more fair and sweet! ” 
LONGFELLow. 


86. “ Alagna.” Dante here does honor to his higher feel- 
ings and nobler motives in denouncing the sacrilegious vio- 
lence which a sovereign pontiff and a brave man met at the 
hands of his infuriated enemies. For that Boniface was 
shamefully treated by Nogaret and Colonna, Dante, at least 
while on the Expiatorial Mountain, could not deny. True, 
in Paradise, he will array against him Saint Peter, but merely 
on the question of jurisdiction. At Alagna, the head of the 
church was, for days in succession, made the target of en- 
venomed personal abuse and the coarsest ridicule ; he and 
his followers were robbed, not only of all the money, valu- 
ables, and personal effects in their possession, but even of 
every movable article of furniture which the hands of men 
could remove; the pope himself was well-nigh starved; and 
with Dante people of all creeds join in denouncing the out- — 
rage. 

‘*There is Alagna, where Pope Boniface 
Was dragged with contumely from his throne; 
Sciarra Colonna, was that day’s disgrace 


The Pontiff’s only, or in part thine own?” 
LONGFELLOw. 


Canto XX. 37 


Notes. 








91, 93. “ Zhe modern Pilate... The Temple.” The mod- 
ern Pilate is Philip the Fair of France; the Temple, the 
Order of the Knights Templars by him persecuted and 
finally suppressed, 1307-1312. Villani, followed by Milman, 
declares that therein Philip was prompted by avarice. The 
seizure of Boniface and the spoliation of the Templars were 
followed by much shame and adversity to the French 
throne. 

103. “ Pygmalion.” The brother of Dido, and murderer 
of Sichzeus, her husband. Dido relates the story to Aineas 
in the First Book of the AEneid. 


*« Impious, and blind with love of gold, and safe 
In her regard, who to him as a sister was, 
He Sichzus secretly, while off his guard, 
Before the altars, on him falling, slew, 
His brother’s life the victim of his sword.” 


106. ‘ Midas.” A Phrygian king who had extended gen- 
erous hospitality to Silenus the preceptor of Bacchus. Bac- 
chus, in return, desired the king to ask some favor of him. 
The avaricious monarch besought of the generous God that 
whatever he might touch might be converted into gold. His 
food was not made an exception, and the king found he would 
starve on gold, and was compelled to ask the God to recall 
his gift. Midas had not so easya time with Apollo. As um- 
pire between Apollo and Pan, the king betrayed the vulgarity 
of his tastes by rendering his decision in favor of Pan, and, 
in consequence, the Leader of the Muses and God of Poetry 
and Eloquence made the king’s ears to assume the entirely 
suitable shape, length, and hirsuteness of those of an ass. 

May not these stories of Midas be pondered to advantage 
by the denizens of Philistia ? 

tog. “ Achan.” Achan and his sons and daughters and 
his flocks and beasts of burden and his tent and all his pos- 
sessions, after being stoned by all Israel, were destroyed by 
fire, because, through avarice, he had taken a portion of the 
consecrated spoils of Jericho. Yoshua, chaps vi. and vii. 

112. “Sapphira.” Ananias and Sapphira his wife, for 


38 Purgatorio. 





Notes. 





withholding from the common fund part of the price of a pos- 
session sold, were rebuked by Peter, and fell to the ground 
dead. Acts, chaps. v. and vi. 

113. “ //eliodorus.” The treasurer of King Seleucus, sent 
to remove the treasure from the Temple of Jerusalem. He 
was met by a knight, cased in armor of gold, mounted ona 
horse with superb trappings. The horse struck at the treas- 
urer with his fore feet, and drove him from the Temple. 2 
Maccabees, chap. iii. 

115. “ Polymnestor.” King of Thrace. Prompted by avarice, 
he murdered and robbed his ward, Polydore, one of the sons 
of Priam. The story is told in the Third Book of the 
ZEneid. 3 

116. “ Crassus.’ Marcus Licinius Crassus was, with 
Pompey and Czsar, a member of the first triumvirate, and, 
on account of his immense wealth, was known as Crassus 
the Rich. Defeated in an expedition against the Parthians, 
he was treacherously killed. His head was taken to Orodes, 
the Parthian king, who poured into the mouth molten gold, 
saying, “ Now be thou satiated with what thou didst covet 
through life!” 

128. “ Zhe Mountain tremble.” The cause of the trembling 
will be given in the next Canto, at line 58: 


“‘ It trembles here when joys a spirit crown, 
That now ’t is pure, so that its soaring worth 
Moves upward ; then doth such a shout break forth.” 


130. “ Delos.” Now Dili, an island in the group of the 
Cyclades, in the Grecian Archipelago. Of volcanic origin, 
it floated on the waves until Jupiter fixed it securely, that it 
might receive Latona, who there gave birth to Apollo and 
Diana, the Sun and the Moon, thence sometimes called 
Delius and Delia. See Third Aineid, 74; and Sixth Aeneid, 
I2. 

136. “ The sound resounded.” “ And suddenly there was 
with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising 
God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 
peace to men of good will!” Lwée ii. 13, 14. 





Canto XX. «36 


Notes. 








‘When Goddes son also was bore, 
He sent his aungel down therefore, 
Whom the shepherdes herden singe : 
* Pees to the men of welwillinge 
In earth be among us here!’ ” 
GowEr, Confessio A mantis, iii. 5. 


It is observable that Gower follows the reading evddoxtas. 
146. “ Desire to know.” To know the cause of the trem- 
bling, which will be explained in the next Canto. 


CANTO TWENTY-FIRST. 


ARGUMENT: 


Statius accosts the Poets, and relates to them his history in 
the world and in Purgatory. He pronounces a warm 
eulogy upon the Aéneid, and is delighted to find that he 
has done’so in the hearing of the shade of Virgil. 


TIME: Moming of Easter Tuesday. 
PERSONS SPEAKING: Dante. The shade of Virgil. Statius. 


PERSONS APPEARING: None, except the persons speaking. 


THE natural thirst that hath not full relief 
But from the well whose drops divinely graced 
The woman of Samaria sought to taste, 
My mind in labor put; behind my Chief 
Haste drove me on along the encumbered path; 
And pity still I felt for that just wrath ; 
And lo! in manner such as Luke relates 
That Christ, new-risen from his rock-wrought 
grave, 
Met two who would his name and friendship 
crave, 





Canto XX7/. 4I 





Virgil and Statius. 





A shade to us approached, those burdensome 

weights 10 

There strewn gazed down on, but behind us came, 
And ere we knew it accents these did frame : 

“‘ My brethren, may God give you peace!” Around 
We suddenly turned, and Virgil’s good intent 
Fair words gave back that fitted to those sent ; 

Then further said: ‘ Peace be with thy soul found, 
In that blest council whose all-just decree 
Doth unto endless exile banish me !” 


“ How is’t,” he said, the while we walked with 
speed, 19 
“Tf ye are shades for whom God nought prepares, 
Who guided hath you so far up his stairs ? ” 
And said my Teacher: “If the marks thou heed 
Which this man bears, and which an Angel 
traced, 
Thou seest he reign must with good spirits placed ; 
But since she who by day and night spins on, 
For him hath not yet from the distaff nipped 
What Clotho grants to be by Atropos clipped, 


“ His soul, which is thy sister and mine own, 28 
Could not alone its journey hither make 
Because impressions ours it would not take. 

From Hell’s deep gulf called forth to be his Guide 
Was I, and I his Guide shall be so far 
As in my school to do so lies the power. 

But tell us, if thou knowest, what trembling wide 
Erewhile the Mountain shook, and why a shout 
Even to the ocean, it did gird about ? ” 


42 Purgatorio. 





Above the Clouds. 





His questioning thus so with my wish was one, 37 
That merely with the hope which gathered first 
Seemed less unsatisfied my deep, craving thirst. 

*‘ Naught is there in this Mountain ever done,” 
He answered, “but by rule ; for custom old 
And order always its devotions mould. 

Here permutation’s periods cannot flow ; 

Except what from itself doth heaven receive 
Into itself, nought else can here inweave, 


“‘ Because that falls nor rain, nor hail, nor snow, 46 
Nor dew, nor hoar-frost, anywhere on this side 
Of where the small, short, threefold steps abide. 

Dense clouds nor rarefied ones are ever seen, 

Nor coruscation ; Thaumas’ daughter skies 
Down lower tints, but reach not here her dyes ; 

Nor doth dry vapor come into this scene, 

Nor farther than of those three steps the height 
Where rest the feet of Peter’s Vicar bright. 


“ Perhaps somewhat it trembles lower down, 55 
But not through winds that hollow caves conceal, 
I know not how, can one its trembling feel. 

It trembles here, when joys a spirit crown, 
That now ’tis pure, so that its soaring worth 
Moves upward; then doth such a shout break 

forth. 

Of purity gained the will the proof affords, 
The will, which, always wholly free to change. 
Its casual convent, gives the soul more range. 





= ——— oe 


Canto XX. 43 





Statius in Discourse. 





* Starts well the will, but with it not accords 64 
The longing which, with strength of will the same 
That sinned, justice divine doth to the torment 

tame. 

And I, who prostrate have been in this pain 
Five hundred years and more, have only now 
A soaring impulse felt my soul endow. — 

Therefore the trembling was, and that glad strain 
Of pious spirits round the Mountain’s ways ; 
Sung hope, and unto God his merited praise.” 


Thus said he to him; and since doth arise 73 
From draughts a joy deep as the thirst ’s intense, 
Words cannot tell the good I garnered thence. 

“The net I see now,” said my Leader wise, 

“That snares ye here, and how your toilings 
cease, 
Why the Mount trembles, why ye feel such peace. 

Now who thou wast make me to understand, 

And why so many centuries thou thy face 
Hast on the ground thus held with patient grace.” 


“In those days when good Titus, with heaven's 
hand 82 

Assisting, did the wounds avenge whence rolled 
The sacred blood by Judas’ treason sold, ° 

That name which most endures and most adorns 
Was mine on earth, and gave me fame,” he said, 
“ But unto faith as yet was I not led. 

So sweet my vocal gpirit was, from bournes 
Thoulousian mine Rome claimed me for her own, 
Where on my brow the myrtle justly shone. 


44 Purgatorio. 





The Heroic Song. 





“The people still me Statius name on earth; gr 
Thebes first I sang, and then Achilles’ wreath, 
But, on the way, I fell the last beneath. 

The seeds that, sparkling, gave mine ardor birth 
Came from that fountain bright of heavenly fire 
Whence seek their light and heat an endless 

choir ; 

The neid’s page I mean, the heroic song. 

My Mother ’t was, and me, a weakling nursed ; 
Else had my name not filled Fame’s bugle-burst. 


“To have lived when lived the Mantuan I would 
long | 100 

As doth the Sun a revolution make 
An added banishment here most willingly take.” 

These words made Virgil’s glance towards me turn ; 
A glance which in its silence said: “ Be mute!” 
But yet the will ’s not always absolute. 

For tears and laughter do so strongly yearn 
To follow on the passion whence they spring 
That in best natures least the will hath wing. | 


I did but smile as one who gives the wink ; 109 
Whereat the shade was silent, and, whence flies 
Expression readiest, gazed into mine eyes. 

“So may’st thou neath that toil immense ne’er 

sink,” 
It said, “ Why didst thou just now, pray, 
To me the lightning of a smile display ? ” 

Now am I straitened, there am caught, and here; 
One stops, one urges, mood opposes mood ; 

A sigh escapes me, and ’tis understood. 








Canto AX. 45 


The Embrace. 








* Speak on,” my Master said, “and have no fear 18 
Of speaking, but with plainness to him show 
That which him moves solicitude such to know.” 

Whereon I thus: “ ‘Thy wonder seemed to rise, 

O ancient spirit, at my smile, but more — 
Shall now thy wonder rise than e’er before. 

This one who upward doth direct mine eyes 
Is that same Virgil led by whom in song 
Of men and Gods thy numbers trooped along. 


“Tf aught beside in my smile thou didst trace 127 
Relinquish it, and be thou sure thy praise 
Of him it was that in me joy did raise.” 

And while I spoke, he stooped down to embrace 
My Teacher’s feet : but “ Brother,” Virgil prayed, 
** Rise up, a shade should not adore a shade.” 

And as he rose: “ Now canst thou readily bring 
Thy mind the sum to grasp of my warm love 
When thus it mounts our vain estate above, 


“ And as a substance treats a shadowy thing.” 136 


NOTES TO THE TWENTY-FIRST CANTO. 


3. “ The woman of Samaria.” Fohn, chap. iv. 

g. “ The two.” Cleopas and another. Zzke, chap. xxiv. 

25. “She... Clotho... Atropos.” The three Fates. 
The one unnamed is Lachesis. Clotho allotted, Lachesis 
nipped and spun, Atropos cut, the thread of human life. 
Stern and cruel old women, they were called by the Poets, in 
irony, Parcz, Sparers of men, in the same sense that their 
ministers, the Furies, were termed the Eumenides or Well- 
Wishers. Carfere, to nip, is a favorite word with Virgil, and 
is the equivalent of Dante’s /évare. 


& 





40 Purgatorio. 


Notes. 





32. “So far.” Virgil will accompany Dante so far as is 
allowable; then he will place him in charge of Beatrice. 

44. “ Heaven.” ‘That is, nothing but the pure elements of 
the heavenly circles, or, in another mode of interpretation, 
nothing but returning souls seeking their source in heaven. 

48. “ Zhe small, short, threefold steps.’ Those of Saint 
Peter’s Gate. The words of Christ in his Sermon on the 


Mount are here, as in the description of the Gate already 


given, kept in mind: “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the 
way, which leadeth unto life.” 
50. “ Zhaumas’ daughter.” Iris, daughter of Thaumas and 
Electra; the rainbow. 
“To him, with mouth all roseate, her sweet words: 


Thaumantias, Wonder’s daughter, thus gave forth.’’ 
Ninth AEneid, 4. 


** Her goodly bow, which paints the liquid ayre.” 
Faerie Queene, v. 3, 25. 

68. “ Five hundred years and more.” See line 77 of Canto 
xvii. and the note. 

82. “ Jn those days.’ The spirit now speaking is that of 
Publius Papinius Statius, a poet of the first Christian century, 
and a native of Naples. Dante has fallen into a mistake in 
giving his birthplace as Toulouse. He has, for the moment, 
confused him with Statius, the rhetorician. Landino conjec- 
tures that Dante was misled by Lactantius, a commentator 
on Statius. It has been said that the Emperor Domitian, in 
a moment of anger, stabbed the poet, who was secretly a 
Christian, with a stylus. 

Statius was the author of the Sy/ve, a collection of thirty- 
two poems, divided into five books; of the 7hebard, an epic 
of the Seven against Thebes in twelve books; and of the 
Achilleis, a poem founded on the history of Achilles, and un- 
finished except as to the first two cantos. 

As bearing on the question of the genuineness of the tomb 
of Virgil, a translation from the Sy/ve (iv. 4) is submitted: 


**Lo! reverie following and the genial shore, 
Where, on its port Ausonian rise the towers 





Canto XX. pari 


Notes. 








Where kind Parthenope the visitor greets, 

With timid thumb I lift the easy latch, 

And repossess my soul, and on the marge 

Of that Maronean temple sit me down, 

And those fair knolls where lies the mortal frame 
The mighty Master owned command my song. 


These notes for thee, Marcellus, let me sing, 

On shores where threats again Vesuvius’ rage 

And torrent fires, which rival those 

Which from Trinacria’s Mountain flout the skies.” 

Eustace, Zour of Jtaly, vol. ii. chap. 2, page 437, makes an 
elaborate and successful defence of-the geographical accu- 
racy of these verses against the hasty constructions of Addi- 
son and Cluverius. 

Prior to the death of Virgil, the hill of Posilippo had been 
the property of Vedius Pollio, who was, probably, a brother, 
or other relative, of Caius Asinius Pollio, to whom Virgil 
addressed his Prophetic Pastoral. This property the will of 
Vedius Pollio devised to Augustus. By the care of Augus- 
tus, Virgil was buried there; ante, Canto vii. line 6. It after- 
wards became the property of the Emperor Trajan. (JZzscr. 
Fubr. p. 199, n. 486.) 

85. “ That name which most endures and most adorns.” 
The name of Poet. 

93. “ On the way T fell.” He died, leaving his Achilleid 
unfinished. ” 

tol. “ Zhe Sun a revolution.” To make sure of meeting 
Virgil he would willingly have waited for him in Purgatory 
an entire year. 

“Tanta dulcedine captos afficit ille animos,” are the caress- 
ing words of Juvenal, spoken of Statius in Satire vii. at line 
84. 
125. “ That same Virgil.’ This passage touchingly mani- 
. fests Dante’s devotion to Virgil. The time approaches at 
which Dante will be compelled to relinquish the companion- 
ship of his beloved Author. So he brings upon the scene 
another Poet, Statius, that from his mouth may come, before 
it be too late, exalted eulogiums of the Loftiest of Bards. 


CANTO TWENTY-SECOND. 
ARGUMENT: 


The scar of avarice disappears from the forehead of Dante, 
as an Angel leads the Poets into the sixth terrace, where 
the shades undergo purgation for the sin of gluttony. 
Virgil and Statius continue in conversation. Therein 
Statius relates the process of his conversion to Christian- 
ity, attributing the first steps in it to the Pollio of Virgil. 
Statius explains that his vice was not avarice but its 
opposite, prodigality; that Virgil’s outcry, in the Aneid, 
against the thirst for gold, had kept him from avarice. 


T1ME: Morning of Easter Tuesday. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: The shade of Virgil. Statius. Voices 
of contrition and praise. 


PERSONS APPEARING: Dante. The spirits undergoing pur- 
gation. 


Now had we left the Angel, who our way 
Into the Circle Sixth had guided, gone 
Another scar his wing had beaten on ; 

And those who justice seek from day to day 
Had “ Blessed ” sung; and then “I thirst,” an end 
They with the first do all divinely blend ; 

And I, now nimbler than in stairs below, 

Such progress made, that free from sense of toil 
I, with the shades, passed fleet this rocky coil ; 








Canto XXII. 49 


Prodigality. ~ 








When Virgil thus: “If doth from virtue flow 10 
Love’s own pure flame, ne’er can it fail to warm 
Another’s breast, when clear its outward form. 

Hence from that hour when Juvenal made descent 
Amongst us in that limbo where we dwell, 

And told how thy kind heart t’wards me did 
swell, 

My kindly feeling was t’wards thee, too, bent 
As strongly as when one’s not seen can be; 
And now all brief this path will seem to me. 


“But tell me, and this will thy friendship test, — 19 
And draw a friend’s forgiveness to a friend, 
Thy generous confidence due to me extend, 
How chanced it Avarice lurked within thy breast, 
’ Thou who such ample stores of wisdom reaped 
As show thy works in all abundance heaped?” 
When met these words at first the Poet’s ear 
He laughed somewhat, then sweetly said: “Of 
thine 
Each several word is of dear love a sign. 


“For oftentimes, we know, do things appear 28 
Which to our doubts present fallacious shows, 
While truth below in hidden fountains flows. 

For in thy question thy belief ’s implied 
That covetousness me in that life disgraced, 
Because, perhaps, in that round I was placed ; 

Know, then, I was of Avarice far too wide, 

And this extravagance rash hath moon on moon 
By thousands made me pardon importune. 


50 Purgatorio. 





Jocasta. 





* And were it not my soul was all alive 37 
To heed that passage where, as if to inveigh 
’Gainst human nature, thou dost nobly say: 

‘To what wilt thou not mortal bosoms drive, 

Thou cursed thirst for gold!’ there lost I ’d toil 
Where rock ’gainst rock is rolled in dismal moil ; 

Then I perceived with lavishment’s wings too wide ~ 
The hands could spread, and happily penitence me 
From that, and sins beside it, rendered free. 


“How many from their graves shall rise denied 4 | 

Their flowing locks, whose ignorant minds here 
brought, 
Alive and dying, no repentant thought! 

And know that here opposing sinners hail, 
Extremes here meet, and here their rankness dry - 
Sins which on earth dissevering highways try. 

Therefore if I my sinning soul did trail 
For cleansing, ’mongst that folk who Avarice 

mourn, 
*T was for a sin which held their sin in scorn,” 

“ Now, when thou didst the undying hatreds sing s5 
Where twofold griefs Jocasta’s load the line,” 
Thus said the Bard of Pastoral Song divine, 

“Tt doth not seem by inferences that spring 
From Clio’s prelude, that faith ruled thee there, 
Faith without which good works fruit do not bear. 

If this be so, what Sun’s or candles’ lights 
Dispelled the darkness, so that onward sped 
Thy bark thereafter where the Fisherman led ? ” 


; 
; 





Canto XXII. 51 


The Pollio. 








And he to him: “'Towards Parnassus’ heights 64 
’T was thee me led, with thee its grots I trod, 
And thou didst first me teach concerning God. 

Thou wast as one who, walking in the night, 
Beareth his light behind, where wise its ray 
Makes those who follow where its sparkles play, 

When thou exclaim’dst, ‘Yields Time a birth of 

might, 
Comes Justice back, and man’s primeval state, 
And now descends from Heaven a progeny great!’ 


“Through thee the Bard’s wreath’s mine, and 
Christian’s palm, 73 
But that thou may’st more of my story learn, 
I will into its lines more color turn. 
Already had the true belief, by calm 
And holy messengers sent, been spread abroad, 
And had been preached the Kingdom of Our Lord, 
And thy prediction with the reverent aim 
Of those new teachers so in unison read 
That I to seek them out was often led. 


“Then they so favored in my sight became 82 
That when Domitian’s persecutions fears 
To their souls gave, they gave to me sad tears. 
And long as I upon the earth did bide, 
Their friend I was, and their most innocent ways 
Made me above all other sects them praise. 
And ere in verse I to the streams that glide 
Through Thebes the Greeks led forth, I was 
baptized, 
But, though a Christian, fear held me disguised. 


52 Purgatorio. 





The Bards in mutual Discourse. 





“For long professing paganism as my creed; — ot 
And this lukewarmness base I hurried for 
Round the fourth terrace more than centuries 

four. — 

Thou therefore who me hast from that doubt freed, 
Which from me hid the blessing meets me here, 
While we ascend, still please my listening ear, 

And say where now doth our friend Terence bide? 
Czecilius where? Plautus’ and Varro’s souls? 
And, if ’t is Hell, what part of it them holds?” 


“These, Persius, and myself, with more beside,” 100 
Said then my Leader, “ with that Greek are placed _ 
Whom more than all the rest the Muses graced, 

In that blind prison’s first apartment ; oft 
That mountain forms the subject of our talk 
Whereon for aye our beauteous Muses walk. 

Euripides and Antiphon there aloft 
Their laurelled heads hold, with Simonides 
And Agatho, and Greeks far more than these. 


“There may be seen of thine own train some 
. souls ; “109 

Antigone, Deiphile and Argia there 
Meet with Ismene still deep-sunk in care. 

Her who Langia pointed out, it holds, 
Tiresias’ daughter, too, and Thetis; dwell 
Deidamia and her sisters there as well.” 

The Bards were silent both, and both inclined 
To look around them, now that we were through 
The ascending defile, and spread wide the view; 





Canto XXII. 53 


The Turning to the Right. 








And the sun’s chariot four had left behind 118 
Of its handmaidens, and the fifth still higher 
Its pole was turning, whence came floods of fire, 
When thus my Guide: “ Let us again proceed, 
As is our wont in mounting, with our right 
Turned t’wards the edge whence far extends our 
sight.” 
Thus custom there as usher us did lead, 
And with its rule were we the more content 
When that good shade to it his sanction lent. 


They on before me walked, while followed I, 127 
My listening soul fed with discourses meet 
From Bards to come so skilled in melody sweet. 

But soon my lessons ceased ; for now near by 
A tree me found which in the roadway grew, 
And fruitage fragrant and abundant knew. | 

And, as a fir-tree’s upward spread ’s less wide, 

So in the way reverse with this ’t was done, 
I think in order that might climb it none. 


And where our path adjoined the Mountain’s 
side 136 
Fell from the lofty rock a limpid stream, 
Which ’mongst the leaves cast wide its pearly 
gleam. 
Near to the tree the Poets drew, while brake 
From out the foliage forth a voice which cried: 
“This food unto your longing is denied!” 
Then said: “ More thoughtful Mary was to make 
The marriage-feast of care relax the bonds 
Than of herself, who now for you responds ; 


54 Purgatorio. 





The Primal Age. 





. * And for their drink the ancient dames, ’t is told, 145 
Of Rome, drank water only ; while restrained 
Was Daniel in his food, he wisdom gained ; 

The primal age was beautiful as gold ; 

Hunger then made the acorns sweet, and ran 
Nectar each rivulet pure for thirsty man ; 

Honey and locusts were the aliment given 
To John the Baptist in the desert ; thence 
He glorious is, is thence his praise immense, 


“As saith the Evangel sent to you from Heaven.” 154 


NOTES TO THE TWENTY-SECOND CANTO. 


5: “Blessed.” “ Are they which do hunger and thirst after 
righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Matthew v. 6. 

8. “Free from sense of toil.” In accordance with the pre- 
diction made in Canto iv. at line go. 

9. “ The shades.” Virgil and Statius. 

13. “ Fuvenal.” Decimus Junius Juvenalis, a Roman sa- 
tirical poet of the latter part of the first Christian century, 
and of the first quarter of the second. Surviving Statius 
some thirty years, Juvenal died at the advanced age of eighty. 
He was born, some say he only lived, at Aquinum. 

“There is Aquinum, the old Volscian town, 
Where Juvenal was born, whose lurid light 
Still hovers o’er his birthplace, like the crown 
Of splendor seen o’er cities in the night. 
Doubled the splendor is, that in its streets 
The Angelic Doctor as a schoolboy played, 
And dreamed perhaps the dreams that he repeats 
In ponderous folios for scholastics made.” 
LONGFELLOw. 


41. “ Zhou cursed thirst for gold.” -“ Auri sacra fames.” 
Third Book of the Aineid, line 57. 
55. “ Undying hatreds.” Of Eteocles and Polynices, the 





Canto XXII. 55 


Notes. 








two sons of Jocasta, Statius sings in the Zhebaid. Dante 
has referred to them by way of illustration in the Twenty- 
seventh Canto of the Inferno. 

57- “Bard of Pastoral Song divine.” A purpose seems to 
have influenced Dante in drawing attention at this point to 
Virgil as a pastoral poet. He will soon mention Virgil’s 
Pollio, the most important of his Pastorals, and, without 
doubt, the most important Pastoral ever written. 

58. “lt doth not seem.” At the outset of the Zhedbaid, 
Statius sings an invocation to Clio, Muse of Glory and 
History. Dante here seems inconsistent in making Virgil 
apparently condemn the use of the myths by Christian poets, 
a privilege of which Dante has allowed himself abundant 
use. The invocation to Clio is as follows: 


“‘ What first, O Clio, shall adorn thy page, 
The expiring prophet, or A£tolian rage? 
Say, wilt thou sing how, grim with hostile blood, 
Hippomedon repelled the rushing flood, 
Lament the Acadian youth’s untimely fate, 
Or Jove, opposed by Capanais, relate ?”’ 


63. “ The Fisherman.” Saint Peter. 

70. “ When thou.” Statius here quotes Virgil’s prophetical 
Pastoral, the Pol/io. 
“‘ Chanter of the Pollio, glorying in the blissful years again to be, 


Summers of the snakeless meadow, unlaborious earth and oarless sea.” 
TENNYSON. 


The poem from which the foregoing lines are taken, the 
force and beauty of which are characteristic of Lord Tenny- 
son, were written at the request of the Mantuans, on the oc- 
casion of the nineteenth centenary of the death of Virgil. 

93- “ More than centuries four.” See line 77 of Canto xvii. 
and the note. 

97, 98, 100. “ Terence... Cacilius... Plautus... Persius 
.» . Varro.” Some critics aver that Dante lacks humor. 
But in this reference to the three humorous poets of Rome, 
there seems an approach to it. It seems to be in the same 
vein as we may suppose will be the affectionate inquiry of 


56 Purgatorio. 





Notes. 





Emerson, in our twentieth century, as to the eschatological 
status of Hood, Barham, and Holmes. Terence, Plautus, 
and Cecilius Statius were in the front rank of humorous 
poets. Persius was a satirist. 

The more famous Varro not being a poet, Butler considers 
that here an error exists, and that Dante wrote ‘“ Varo” 
(Varus), a poet to whom Virgil addressed the Pastoral of 
that name. Blanc thinks Dante wrote “ Vario” (Varius), 
the literary executor of Virgil. 

to1. “ That Greck.” . Homer. 

106, 107, 108. “ Euripides ... Antiphon .. . Simonides 
. .. Agatho.” Mrs. Browning, Wine of Cyprus, has some 
pretty lines on “Our Euripides, the human;” Longfellow 
asks why Dante makes no mention here of Aischylus “the 
thunderous,” and Sophocles “the royal;” Antiphon was of 
Attica; Simonides of Cos; Agatho an Athenian. There is 
here an “ embarras de richesse.” 

109. * Some souls.” Here follow the names of ancient 
characters made prominent in the poems of Statius, and 
which Virgil repeats here by way of compliment. Dante 
seems here to have made a slip as to Tiresias’ daughter, — 
Manto, also called Daphne. He has already placed her 
among the sorcerers in the Lower World. Inferno, Canto 
xx. King John of Saxony (“ Philalethes”) suggests that 
Dante was as much entitled to his nap as Homer. 

118. “ Four.” Four hours of the day were already passed. 
The time was after ten o’clock in the morning. 

139. “ The tree.” Of temptation, branch of the tree of 
knowledge. 

143. “ Zhe marriage-feast.” At Cana. 

145, 146, 147. “Dames... of Rome... Daniel.” 

‘* Vini usus olim Romanis feminis ignotus fuit.”’ 
Vacerius MAxIMUs, ii. 1, 5. 
Daniel, on pulse and water, found himself endowed with 
greater vigor of mind and body than those who were 
pampered by the luxuries of the king’s table. See Damiel, 
chap. L 











148. “ The primal Age.” 


*€ Would I had fallen upon those happier days 
That Poets celebrate, those golden times 
And those Arcadian scenes that Maro sings, 
"And Sydney, warbler of poetic prose! ”” 
CowPeEr. 





152. “ Fohn the Baptist.” Dante, with art at once rhe 
torical and political, reserves the example of the patron 
saint of Florence to give point and force to the close of the 
Canto. 


| 


CANTO TWENTY-THIRD. 


ARGUMENT : 


As Virgil, Statius, and Dante proceed, they meet crowds of 
spirits, pale, hollow-eyed, and lean, among them Forese, the 
brother-in-law of Dante, with whom he converses. Forese 
inveighs against the immodesty of the Florentine women. 


TIME: Afternoon of Easter Tuesday. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Dante. The shade of Virgil. Forese. 
The spirits weeping and singing. 


PERSONS APPEARING: Statius. The spirits of the gluttonous 
made lean. 


Wuitst I upon the verdure fresh mine eyes 
Held fixed, with closeness as of one whose waste 
Of time is as though birdlings he had chased, 
“My son,” my more than Father said, “time flies, 
* The share thereof at our disposal placed 
Compels us to observe a greater haste.” 
Looks, steps, at once, of mine, were eagerly stirred 
Towards the Sages whose delightful talk 
Took of fatigue all traces from my walk, 


Canto XXTIT, 59 


The wasted Gluttons. 








And lo! were grief’s and joy’s joint accents heard, 10 
“My lips, O Lord!” and these so blent that fain 
I was to hear, and yet the words gave pain. 

“© my sweet Father, what is this, Id learn?” 
And he: “Souls on their rounds, my son, are 

they, 

Who thus, perhaps, their debt of duty pay. 

In the same way considerate pilgrims turn 
When unknown people on the road they meet, 
And, not delaying, thus them kindly greet.” 


E’en thus, behind us, and with swifter pace 19 
Than ours, of shades a throng came and passed 
on, 


But us in pious silence watched ere gone. 
Dark, deep, like caverns, were their eyes, in face 
Each pallid was, and so emaciate grown 
That nought between the skin was and the bone. 
I do not think that unto such a shell 
Could Erisichthon’s self have shrunk, when him 
Most fear of hunger thrilled in every limb. 


“ Behold the folk,” into this thought I fell, 28 
_“ That lost Jerusalem’s towers, sad ’t is to say, 
When of her own son Mary made a prey.” 
Like rings without the gems their sockets stood ; 
Whoever omo reads in th’ human face 
Could there of m have seen the evident trace. 
Who would believe an apple’s odor could, 
Or water’s, generate longing so, and dry 
Their ghastly frames, till one knew how and why. 


60 Purgatorio. 





Forese Donati. 





While what could them so waste I wondering 

thought, 37 

(For not yet manifest was the cause whence came 
Emaciation’s squalor on each frame), 

Lo! deep-sunk eyes from one of them me sought 
With look close-fixed and keen ; then said a voice 
With ardor filled, “ For this grace I rejoice!” 

His looks would ne’er have made him known to me, 
But in his tones my memory found made plain 
What in his guise I e’er should seek in vain. 


The light this spark gave made me now to see 46 
Beyond the mask that his changed features bore, 
And I Forese’s visage knew once more. 

“ Ah! look not thou at my dry, leprous skin 
Discolored thus, nor at default,” he prayed 
“Of flesh that from my members gaunt hath 

strayed ; 

But of thyself to tell at once begin ; 

And those two souls, thine escort, who are they? 
In speaking unto me make no delay.” 


“That face of thine which dead I once bewailed,” ss 
I answered him, “ changed nearly past my ken, 
Inclines me now no less to weep than then. 

But say, by Heaven, what blasts have on ye trailed? 
Make me not speak while still my wonder swells, 
For ill speaks he who’s held by other spells.” 

And he to me: “God’s council power hath sent 
Into the tree and water which we passed, 

To make us thin, to set our looks aghast. 








Canto XXIII. 61 





His Discourse. 





_ “This people all, who now sing, now lament, _—_ 64 
For appetite followed to excess, here tried 
By hunger and thirst, are thus resanctified. 

The fragrance that the apple-tree there exhales, 
And spray the leaves take from the rocky brink, 
Make grow desire in us to eat and drink ; 

And not alone a single round avails, 

We, circling often here, our pain renew, 
I call it pain, but solace were more true. 


“For that same wish leads us the tree’s known 
way, 73 
Which Christ to cry out ‘ Eli’ led, when He 
With his own sacred veins made mankind free.” 
And I to him: “ Forese, from that day 
When, for the better, thou mad’st change of 
spheres, 
Not quite to five are numbered yet the years. 
If sooner ceased in thee the sin whose stay 
Was baleful to thee, than the unlooked-for hour 
God us reweds cleansed by this good grief’s power, 


“ How so far art thou e’en already sped ? 82 
I deemed that thou so far couldst not yet climb 
Where restitution time doth make for time.” 

And he to me: “ Thus speedily me have led, 

The wormwood sweet to sip of this higher plane, 
Tears that came down my Nella’s cheeks like rain. 
Tears, prayers, dnd sighs have caused mine onward 
tread 
Up from the coast where souls long lingering bide 
And planes below where else I had been tried. 


62 Purgatorio. 





The Women of Florence. 





* As single in good works her I can boast, or 
And pleasing therefore unto God and dear, 

My widow whom I loved with love sincere. 

The tracts most barbarous of Sardinia’s coast 
Have dames whose modesty chaste by far excels 
That barbarous land I left wherein she dwells. 

O Brother sweet, herein should I be dumb ? 
Comes now before mine eyes a future date 
Which, with this hour compared, shall not be late, — 


“When from the pulpit shall the interdict come 100 
Against the unblushing dames whom Florence 
holds 
Who bare their breasts unveiled by kerchiefs’ 
folds. 
What savage women, e’er, what Saracens e’en, 
Did spiritual or other discipline need 
To make them rules of modest costume heed ? 
But if the shameless women that which mean 
The Heavens to send against them could now see, — 
Their mouths would wide for howling open be. 


“For if me foresight here is not denied, 109 
They shall of sorrow taste e’er beard his cheeks, 
Who now’s with lullabies hushed to slumber, 

seeks, | 

Brother, no longer now thee from me hide ; 

Seest thou, not only I, but all, there gaze 
Where intercepts thy form the Sun’s keen rays?” 

Whence I: “If thou to mind recallest, what thou 
With me hast been, and I with thee, it will 
A saddening memory us accompany still. 








Canto XXIII. 63 


Beatrice desired. 








“ From that world he me brought who now 118 
Walks there in front, days since, when, round 
and bright, 
The sister of him who’s yonder beamed with 
light,” 
And to the Sun I pointed. “Through the gloom 
Deep-set that holds the truly dead hath me, 
In my true flesh, this one led safe and free. 
And his availing aid hath given me room 
For hope of mounting here from plane to plane 
Which souls deformed like yours make straight 
again. 


“‘ His word I have that he will with me bide 127 
Till finally where dwells Beatrice I shall be ; 
There I must him allow to part from me. 

This Virgil is, who thus remains my Guide,” . 
And him I pointed at, “and by him stands 
That shade for whom your realm, which so ex- 

pands, 

Shook, as he rose, through all its slopings wide.” 


NOTES TO THE TWENTY-THIRD CANTO. 


11. “My lips, O Lord.” “O Lord, open thou my lips, and 
my mouth shall show forth thy praise. 

“ For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: 
thou delightest not in burnt offering. 

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and 
a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” 

Psaim ii. 15, 16, 17. 

26. “ Erisichthon.” A Thessalian who offended Ceres by 
cutting down a grove sacred to the celebration of her rites. 
She punished him with insatiable hunger. 


64 3 Purgatorio. 





Notes. 





30. “ Of her own son.” An incident in the siege of Jerusa- 
lem by Titus, predicted by Moses in Deuteronomy xxviii. 56, 
57, and related in horrible detail by Josephus, vi. 3. 

32. “omo.” As Dante suggests, there is a sort of resem- 
blance, in the lines of a meagre face (the attenuated nose 
with deep indentations on either side of it), to the letter m. 
The aspirated 0 at the beginning of the word, and the same 
letter unaspirated at the end, form the word Homo. 

This grotesque medizeval idea was even carried so far as 
to include the imagined finding, in the human features, not 
only of the name of man (OMO), but also of that of God (DE1), 
so that the human features should read : “ Man of God.” For 
it was supposed that the shape of the human ear suggests 
the Greek letter delta, 5, and that the shape of the human 
nostrils suggests that of the Greek letter epsilon, e, turned 
upon its back, and that the shape of the human mouth sug- 
gests that of the Greek letter iota, s, placed horizontally. 
Thus the entire phrase would be “ Homo Dei,” a phrase 
which attests, at once, the piety and the puerility of those re- 
markable times. 

36. “ How and why.” The how and why will be soon told. 

48. “ Forese.” This spirit is that of Forese Donati, brother 
of Dante’s wife, Gemma Donati, and consequently of Corso 
and Piccardi Donati, and one of Dante’s closest friends. 

Buti records Forese’s gluttonous proclivities, which bring 
his spirit upon the present terrace. 

Rossetti, Zarly Jtalian Poets, Appendix to Part II., records 
that certain abusive verses launched at Dante were attrib- 
uted to Forese; but caution would suggest that injurious 
reports in saibWercts times should be entitled to little atten- 
tion. 

For Piccarda, the sister-in-law of the Poet, he seems to 
have had great consideration. A nun of the order of Santa 
Clara, and married against her will to Rosselin della Tosa, 
Dante will question Forese about her in the next Canto, and 
will place her in Paradise. See Paradiso, Canto iii. 49. 

71. “ Circling often.” And with speed, as we shall read 
below. 











Canto XXTTI. | 65 


Notes. 








74. “* Ali” ” Matthew xxvii. 46. 

87. “ My Nella.” His widow, the name being an affec- 
tionate contraction of some longer name, probably of Giova- 
nella. 

94. “ Sardinia.” The Gennargentu, the principal moun- 
tain-range in Sardinia, produced, according to Covino, a 
people well-nigh barbarous. In Dante’s time it was called 
the Barbagia. 

1o1. “ Unbdlushing”’ Sacchetti, the Italian novelist of the 
fourteenth century, indulges in severe censures of female 
fashions ; but he seems to regret that, whereas before his 
time, the women of Florence exposed their charms unduly, 
they, zz his time, proceeded to the other extreme, and wore 
high necks and long sleeves, which kept their attractions in 
complete seclusion. 

103. “ Saracens.” A name applied, in the Middle Ages, to 
all nations renouncing Christianity, except the Jews. 

117. “A saddening memory.” Expressions like these have 
encouraged some of the critics to declare that Dante, in the 
Commedia, admits that stains existed on his private charac- 
acter. That, fairly considered, they are incapable of this 
construction, is the conclusion of the more charitable. 
Lowell, Essay on Dante, Among my Books, second series, pp. 
61 et seq. | 


CANTO TWENTY-FOURTH. 
ARGUMENT: 


Dante and Forese continue in conversation, attended by 
Virgil and Statius. Forese discourses of Florentine politics, 
and predicts the downfall of Dante’s chief enemy, Donati, 
the leader of the Neri. He points out the spirits of Pope 
Martin the Fourth, and others, among the rest the Poet 
Buonagiunta, with whom Dante converses. The Angel of 
the seventh terrace announces their approach to that ter- 
race. 


TIME: Afternoon of Easter Tuesday. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Dante. Forese. Buonagiunta. Voices. 
An Angel. The Angel of the seventh terrace. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The shade of Virgil. Statius. Pope 
Martin the Fourth. Boniface Archbishop of Ravenna. 
The Marquis Rigogliosii Ubaldino. The hollow-eyed 
spirits of the gluttonous. 


Our speed checked not our speech, nor that our 
speed ; 
But in full flow of talk we moved along 
As moves a ship impelled by breezes strong. 
And shades, that dead twice over seemed, their heed 
To me gave wondering, while their tombs of eyes 
Made me out living, to their deep surprise. 
And I continued thus my former talk : 
“Tt may be he more slowly upward fares, 
Because that he for others’ company cares. 








a ey, 


Canto XXTV. 67 


Martin the Fourth. 








* But tell me if of note do any walk 10 
Among the numerous shades that eye me so? 
And where Piccarda is, if thou dost know?” 

“‘ My sister, she so beautiful, so good ! 

- (I know not which the most) Olympus’ brow 
Sees, crowned with jubilant triumph, even now.” 

This said he first, and then: “‘’T is not thought 

rude 
To indicate each other here, so slight 
Are we become, milked down on diet light. 


“ This,” pointing t’wards him, “ Buonagiunta is, 19 
Buonagiunta, Lucca’s bard, and he 
A space beyond, the leanest face we see, 
The holy Church held in those arms of his ; 
Of Tours he was, and make him penitent pine 
Bolsena’s eels, and grieve the Vernage wine.” 
Names one by one he gave of others there, 
And quite content all seemed at being named, 
For not one frown his freedom therein blamed. 


Through hunger saw I bite the empty air, 28 
With Ubaldino della Pila, he 
Named Boniface, ’neath whose crook flocks 
strewed the lea. 
I saw the Marquis who at Forli had 
For drinking lips less dry than now were these ; 
That one he was whose thirst could nought ap- 
pease. 
But, just as one, a crowd who scans, is glad 
To find his choice, I most liked Lucca’s bard, 
And he seemed me to hold in most regard. 


68 Purgatorio. 





Buonagiunta. 








A murmur, and I know not what fair-sung 37 
Gentucca, from that place I heard, where felt 
The withering wound was justice to them dealt. 

“‘O soul,” I said, “ whose so desirous tongue 
Would speak to me, be it so, that thus my mind 
As well as thine may mingled pleasures find.” 

“That maid is born, and wears yet tresses loose, 
Who shall to thee my city pleasing make,” 

He said, “although men may its cause forsake. 





“Go then, and put this prophecy safe in use: 4 
If what I murmured hath thine ear deceived, 
True things hereafter with it will be weaved. 

But say if him I see whose hand the lay 
Invented newly penned, which thus begins : 
‘Ladies, ye whom love’s own sweet study 

wins?’” 

And I to him: “ Count me as one whose way 
Of writing is to wait till love inspire 
And dictate fitting measures to my lyre.” 


“O Brother, ’tis disclosed,” he said, “ why fail 55 
Mine and the Notary’s and Guittone’s notes 
’Fore that new style whence now sweet music 

floats, 

Full clearly see I what doth you avail : 

Ye closely follow him who dictates ; our 
Less wide idea was that we held the power. 

And he who would surpass this love-formed style 
Cannot ’twixt styles discern ;” and here, as well 
Contented, he forthwith to silence fell. 


Canto XXIV. 69 





Forese prophesies. 





As birds that pass their winters near the Nile — & 
Fly formed in solid phalanx, but are traced 
Soon ranged in file whereto they ’re urged by 

haste, 

Thus all this throng of spirits as they turned 
Their faces, faster fled, with leanness light, 

But urged by strong desire to this their flight. 

And, as a man with wearying trotting churned, 
Slacks pace, and walks his steed, and falls behind, 
Until his lungs a chance to breathe can find, 


E’en so Forese let that holy throng 73 
Pass by, and lingered near my side, and said : 
“When near to thee shall I again be led?” 

“ My life,” I said, “may be or brief or long, 

Yet not so soon shall I to these heights soar, 
But that my wishes shall be here before ; 

Because the place appointed for my stay 
Of its fast-lessening good sees daily loss 
And dismal wreck seems there all things to toss.” 


And he: “ Now go; for this, guilt’s height shall 
pay. ais 
For lo! I see him at a beast’s tail t’wards 
That valley dragged which hope to none affords. 
Faster and faster still the beast drives on 
Until it dashes him to dire death, torn 
His body all, and left a mark for scorn. 
Brief space indeed shall those wheels turn,” and 
borne : 
His eyes were to the heavens, “ere thou shalt see 
Made plain what further must be hid from thee. 


70 Purgatorio, 





The Mighty Masters. 








‘* Now be thou distanced; in this realm is time 9x 
A precious thing, and too much lose I, stayed 
To suit thy pace, and thus a laggard made.” 

As sometimes one, of knights the very prime, 

At gallop dashes from a troop that ride, 
Making the first assault a point of pride, 

So he with lengthened strides us lost to view, 

And I remained with those loved spirits twain | 
Who o’er the world such mighty Masters reign. __ 


And when so far he had passed on, that through 100 
Mine eyes I could of him as much discern 
As could my mind of his forebodings learn, 

Upon another apple-tree we came, 
Which not far distant was, and whither sitatatel 
Our path led on from where we were of late. 

A throng beneath it seemed to cry in blame, 
While t’wards the fruit they hands and longings 

cast, 

Like little children craving a repast 


From one who cheats them, granting not their 
prayer, 109 

But, to make keener still their appetite, gay, 
What they desire holds forth in full display. 

Therefrom, as undeceived, they then did fare ; 
And now had we unto the tree drawn near, 
The mighty tree, so proof ’gainst plaint and tear. 

“Pass on; approach not; further on this round 
The tree doth stand the fruit whereof Eve ate, 
This one its scion is, of later date.” 


Canto XXTV. 71 





' Contemplation. 








Came from I know not whom imbowered the 
sound ; 118 
Whence Virgil, Statius, and myself the side 
That rises sought, so warned by this new Guide. 
“ Remember,” next he said, “‘ the accursed sons 
The cloud-rack fathered, who, when drunken, 
brought 
Their twyform breasts ’gainst Theseus who them 
fought ; 
And mind ye, too, of those effeminate ones 
Who, for their ease in slacking of their thirst, 
Left Gideon’s band ere woe on Midian burst.” 


Thus, following yet the border, on we went, 127 

Still sins of gluttony hearing and their gains 

Which wretched were and full of torturing pains. 
Then, less constrained, upon the terrace bent 

We still our steps, a thousand and yet more, 

With silent contemplation covered o’er. 
“Why fare ye three thus pensive on the way?” 

Said suddenly now a voice which startled me @+™ 
. As sometimes startled a dumb beast will be. 


4 
J 


_ To raise mine eyes I then did make essay ; 136 
_ And never in a furnace’s keenest flow 
Did glass or metal with such brightness glow 
As he whom now I saw. “So please you, here 
To mount aloft ye turn, this way,” he said, 
“Go all who would in paths of peace be led.” 
Sunk ’fore his face mine eyes to darkness mere, 
So that my Guide’s to seek I turned me, brought 
By sense of hearing there where them I sought. 


ee 


thes 


72 Purgatorio. 





The Angel. 





As when to herald forth the dawn in May em 
The sweet air moves and breathes a fragrance — 


rare 
That springs from all her blooms and flowerets 
fair, 
So did I feel upon my forehead play 
A breeze divine, and wings ethereal wave, 
Which forth an odor of ambrosia gave; 
And then heard say: “They blessed are whom 
grace 
Doth so illumine that their appetite fires 
Not in their breasts inordinate wild desires, 


* But moderation’s rule for them doth trace.” 154 


NOTES TO THE TWENTY-FOURTH CANTO. 


8. “lt may be he more slowly.” Dante is still addressing 
Forese, and is still speaking of Statius. Cary suggests that 
the soul of Statius proceeds more slowly, in order that he 
may enjoy as long as possible the company of Virgil. 

11. “ Piccarda.’ Sister of Forese, and sister-in-law of 
Dante. See notes to the preceding Canto. 

19. “ Buonagiunta, Lucca’s bard.” Buonagiunta Urbisani, 
of Lucca, a poet of Dante’s time, whom Benvenuto describes 
as “a brilliant orator in his mother tongue, a facile producer 
of rhymes, and a still more facile consumer of wines.” The 
name Buonagiunta seems to be formed from édxwona and 
gzunta, and its equivalent in English would be Well-met, or 
Welcome, and we are probably safe in assuming that the 
name is a nickname, originating in the admiration of his 
companions. 

22. “ The leanest face.” Pope Martin the Fourth, born 
1220, died of a surfeit in 1285, Dante being then twenty years 











; 
: 
. 
; 
’ 
; 


Canto XXTV. 73 


Notes. 








of age. He espoused the Guelph side of the interminable 
quarrel, and, being a native of France, became a partisan of 
Charles of Anjou. The fearful state of those times may be 
imagined from the fact that, although elected, by the munici- 
pality of Rome, chief magistrate, senator, of the city, he made 
Orvieto his see, and came to his death in Perugia. 

24. “ Bolsena’s eels, and... Vernage wine.” The Lake 
of Bolsena is a few miles northwest of Viterbo, on the road 
from Rome to Sienna. Chaucer, in his Merchant’s Tale, 
makes mention of the Vernage wine: 


* He drinketh ipocras, clarre, and vernage, 
Of spices hot, to-encreasen his corage.”’ 


29. “ Ubaldino della Pila.” Pila was in the Florentine ter- 
ritory. This Ubaldino was a brother of “ the Cardinal ” of 
the Tenth, and father of the Archbishop Ruggieri of the 
Thirty-third Canto of the Inferno, and passed his time in 
managing his rural affairs. 

30. “ Boniface.” A Genoese, of the family of the Fieschi, 
and nephew of Pope Innocent the Fourth, he was employed 
by Pope Honorius the Fourth as a diplomat to settle the 
quarrel between France and Aragon. The question of his 
identity has been made matter of discussion, but the forego- 
ing is the reasonable decision of King John of Saxony. 

31. “ The Marquis.” Of Rigogliosi of Forli. “ People 
say you are always drinking,” said to him one of his servants. 
“ Teil them I am always thirsty,” responded the marquis. 

33. “ Gentucca.” Buti says: ‘‘Dante formed an attach- 
ment to a gentle lady, called Madonna Gentucca, of the fam- 
ily of Rossimpelo, on account of her great virtue and mod- 
esty, and not with any other love.” The O¢timo, Benvenuto 
and Blanc consider the name a common noun, equivalent to 
plebeian, and give the phrase a political significance. Balbo 
weakly construes the term to Dante’s moral disparagement. 
The Danteans all seem to have forgotten that the word is 
not that of Dante, but of Buonagiunta, and its significance 
should probably be sought for in his history. 


74 Purgatorio. 





Notes. 





43- “ That maid is born.” The Ottimo says the lady al- 
luded to is Alagia Malaspina, of the preceding Nineteenth 
Canto, a friend of Dante in the days of his exile. 

51. “ Zadies.” The first verse of a canzone of Dante’s in 
his Vita Nuova: 


“* Donne, ch’ avete intelletto d° amore.” 


55- “ Zhe Notary.” Jacopo da Lentino, a Sicilian poet of 
the thirteenth century. 

55- “ Guittone.” A native of Arezzo, and a friar of the 
Frati Guadenti, or Jovial Friars, described in the Twenty-third 
Canto of the Inferno, and afterwards founder of a monastery 
in Florence. Born about 1230, died 1294. To him Cary, 
whose judgment has value, assigns a distinguished place in 
literature. He was the first who gave to the sonnet its per- 
fect form, a species of composition in which not only his own 
countrymen, but many of the best poets in all the cultivated 
languages of modern Europe, have since so much delighted. 
The liberality of his disposition, I remark, may have sug- 
gested his name, guztto meaning miserly ; just as the admi- 
rable Tignoso of the Fourteenth Canto was called a scurvy 
fellow because he was mot one. In the Twenty-sixth Canto 
Dante will mention Guittone in connection with Guinicelli and 
Arnaud, other admired poets. 

57- “ New style.” Buonagiunta is making an acknowledg- 
ment that, since his date, the general literary style has im- 


proved. 


64. “ Birds.” See the Fifth Canto of the Inferno, line 
46; Euripides, Helena, 1495; and Statius, the TZhebaid, v. 
12. 

79. “ The place.’ Florence. — 

82. “ Guilt’s height.” The words, it should be noted, are 
spoken by Forese Donati of Corso Donati. They are spoken 
of brother by brother. They indicate that both the speaker 
and Dante are moved by vehement Ghibelline animosity. 
The contemporary chronicler, Villani, viii. 96, describes Corso 
Donati as “ the wisest and most worthy knight of his time; 








Canto XXTV. 75 


Notes. 











the best speaker ; the most experienced statesman ; the most 
renowned, the boldest, and most enterprising nobleman in 
Italy: he was handsome in person, and of the most gracious 
manners, but very worldly, and caused infinite disturbance in 
Florence on account of his ambition.” Such a man it was 
who was pursued by a raging mob, hounded on by the chief 
magistrate of the republic, in flagrant violation of law, and 
was captured and slain upon the highway: a grievous pic- 
ture of a popular chieftain tracked to death by unscrupulous 
eneimies in a lawless age! 

96. “ The first assault a point of pride.” 

; *** Ho Knights! ’ he said, ‘ who first with me the foe 
Against ... There!’ And in air a javelin hurled, 
The fight’s beginning.” 
Ninth ZEneid, 53. 

99. “ Mighty Masters.” Virgil and Statius. 

103. “ Zree.” This tree and others are merely scions of 
the tree of knowledge mentioned below, line 116. The tree 
of knowledge will be found at the summit of the Purgatorial 
Mountain, in the Garden of Eden, or Terrestrial Paradise. 

111. “Jn full display.’ These playful lines illustrate 
Dante’s keen relish for the sports and gayeties of childhood. 

122. “ The cloud rack.” The centaurs, born of Ixion and 
the cloud, and overpowered at the wedding of Hippodamia 
and Pirithous, by the Lapithz under the lead of Thesais. 

_“ What gifts that equal mention merit here 
Doth Bacchus grant? Indeed occasion gave 
The God for grave complaint ; for he it was 
The Centaur’s rage for blood who caused, made mad 
Fierce Rhcetus, Pholus, and Hylzus grim, 
Hylzus whom his zeal made seize, to hurl 
Against the Lapithz, a wine-cask huge.” 
i Second Georgic, 454. 


126. “ Gideon .... Midian.” “The effeminate ones” in 
Gideon’s army were they who “for their ease” bowed down 
upon their knees to drink. The entire army so bowed down 
except three hundred. These three hundred lapped the 





76 Purgatorio. pope. Bh 





Notes. “a 





water like a dog, “ putting their hand to their mouth,” but q 
with these three hundred Gideon, under the instructions of — 
the Almighty, overthrew the Midian host. Fudges, ~ vii. 9 

‘‘ The matchless Gideon in pursuit ; 


Of Midian and her vanquished kings.” 
Mivton, Samson A gonistes. 





148. “ Upon my forehead oax ” The Angel’s wings were 4 
fanning away another letter P, the sixth, that of gluttony. 


CANTO TWENTY-FIFTH. 


ARGUMENT: 


The Poets enter the seventh terrace, where purifying flames 
cleanse the lascivious. Statius discourses on the origin of 
physical being, and of the soul, and of the organization of 
the shade-body of the Lower World, the spiritual body of 
the Purgatorial Mountain, and the glorified and radiant 
flame-body of the heavenly spheres, and explains that the 
spirits on this terrace are lean, as through want of food, 
because the soul, continuing its influence beyond our mortal 
life, leads the spirit which it controls to be lean. 


Time: Afternoon of Easter Tuesday. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Dante. The shade of Virgil. Statius. 
Spirits in voices of penitence and praise. 


PERSONS APPEARING: Spirits cleansed by fire. 


An hour it was that would not brook delay, 
Because the Sun had his meridian height 
To Taurus given, and to the Scorpion night. 
Wherefore, as one that’s eager of his way, 
And tarries not, delayed by no new thing, 
While of necessity’s spur he feels the sting, - 
So did we haste to thread the rocky rift, 
And, mounting upwards, filing singly, kept 
Apart, while we the narrow stairway stepped. 


78 Purgatorio. 





The Lascivious. 





E’en as the unfledged stork that doth uplift 10 
Its little wing to leave the nest, but shrinks 
From its attempt, while down the pinion sinks, 

E’en so with me did strong desire to ask 
Arise and fall, for I myself betrayed 
As fain to speak by movements which I made. 

Not by our pace, the day’s allotted task, 

My Father sweet was held ; “ Let fly,” he said, 

“ From off thy well-stretched nerve its arrow-head.” 


This gave me courage, then, my words to find: 19 
“How can,” I said, “ one lean and meagre grow 
Where any want of food one doth not know?” 
“Tf thou wouldst Meleager call to mind, 
How, as a brand did waste, he wasted, here 
Thou wouldst at once of every doubt be clear ; 
And, wouldst thou think how, in a mirror’s face, 
Each tremulous move you make’s repeated, 
nought 
Would easier be than this thy lesson taught. 


“ But that thy will may find-contentment’s grace, 28 
Here’s Statius, him thy wounds I ask to mend, 
Let on his healing words thine ear attend.” 

“Tf I to him Heaven’s vengeance shall unfold 
Where thou art present,” answered Statius, 

“ shields 
- Me thy command to which mine own wish yields.” 

And then to me: “Son, if thy thought shall hold 
These words of mine serenely entertained, 

The ‘ How’ thou ask’st shall be in full explained. 











Canto XXV. . 79 





The Origin of physical Being. 





“That perfect blood which ne’er the thirsty veins 37 
Drink in, and which as unused food aside 
Is laid, when us our meal hath satisfied, 


_ For all the human members virtue gains, 


Informative in the heart, a power that flows 

To each new limb and whence it lives and grows. 
Concocted still it gradually descends 

To where let modesty veil; its drops then place 

Find on another’s blood in nature’s vase. 


“There one together with the other blends, 46 
One passive, but the other active, force 
Deriving from that perfect place, its source. 

Conjointly there to operate they begin, 
Coagulating first, then life’s first signs 
Giving to that which blood and blood combines. 

The active virtue thus its growth doth win, 

Just as a plant doth, only that a bar 
Plants have in growth, which man surpasses far. 


* And now it operates, moves, and feels, in form 55 
A sea-sponge clinging to the rock, and wields 
Of powers control that it as their seed yields. 

Now, Son, doth spread that fruitful virtue warm 
The generator’s heart gave forth, wherein 
Nature herself her edifice did begin. 

How babe from animal it becomes, as yet 
Thou dost not see; a point which stirred 
A wiser man than thou, and yet he erred 


80 | Purgatorio. 





And of the Soul. 








“So far, that, in his theory, never met 64 
The soul, and passive intellect, joined, because 
Seen by him for this last no organ was, 

Thy breast lay open to the truth I speak, 

And know that, soon as, in the embryo, brain — 
Hath full articulation set in train, 

The primal Mover it with joy doth seek 
Pleased at such art of nature, and imbreathes 
A spirit new, which virtue all inwreathes. 


“This what it finds here active doth attract 73 
To its own substance, and one soul becomes 
Which lives and feels and being’s measure sums. 

And not to let thy wonder bide intact, 

The Sun’s heat note, which with the juice the vine 
Holds mingled, turns the acrid sap to wine. 
When Lachesis’ hands the thread have spun, the 
soul 
The flesh deserted leaves, and with it bears 
The human and divine as forth it fares. 


“Memory, Intelligence, Will, it doth control; 82 

They active are beyond their wont before ; 

The other faculties all lack voice and power. 
Without a pause, and of itself, it falls, 

In marvellous way, on one or the other strand, 

And here doth first its fixed route understand. 
Soon as it hold high cliffs or gloomy halls 

That active virtue doth once more inform 

The shadowy limbs as when life held them warm ; 





Canto XXV. 8I 


Memory, Intelligence, Will. 








** And, even as the air, made moist with showers, 9: 
The casual ray refracting, doth adorn 
Its haze with hues that elsewhere have been born, 
So here the air a shape acquires which powers 
The soul hath on it fix, the ambient air 
Which thus the soul, born elsewhere, hath in care. 
And then, as flame doth follow still the fire 
Where’er it moves, from burning round to round 
So, following the soul, the new form e’er is found. 


“Hence the soul’s semblance doth the form 
acquire, 100 
And spirit ’s called, and every sense aright 
Is to it given, aye, even to the sight. 
Thence ’tis we speak, and thence we laugh, and 
sighs 
We form and tears; thou oft, ’tis like, the same 
Hast noticed since thou on the Mountain came. 
According as our varying wishes rise, 
And promptings many, so is shaped the soul ; 
Answers thou hast thy wondering may control.” 


Now had we reached the rocky stairway’s height, 109 
And, to the right hand turning, found that there 
Came straight before our eyes another care. 

For there the precipice fire’s redundant might 
Pours forth, while upward from the rim a blast 
With its strong breath the flames doth backward 

cast. . 

Thence must we pass upon the outer side, 
And one by one; and fear me held in thrall 
Of here the fire and there a headlong fall. 


82 Purgatorio. 





Eschatology of Dante. 








“Along this place must one have,” said my 
Guide, 118 
“Upon the eyes a tightened rein, else err 
Might easily one who on this ledge would stir.” 
Then from the bosom of the flowers mine ear 
Heard “God of highest clemency” chanted ; 
turn : 
Round would I then the chanting’s source to 
learn ; , 
And when I in the flames saw shades appear, 
The shades who sung, my sight, divided grown, 
Sought now their steps, and now observed mine 
own. 


At that hymn’s close they shouted loud : “ A man 127 
I know not ;” then, with voices low, renewed 
The hymn whereby they heaven’s sweet mercies 

sued. 

Again this ended; and “ Diana ran,” 

They cried, “unto the wood, and from it drove 
Callisto stung with love of lawless Jove.” 

Then the same hymn again they mused ; then names 
Of wives and husbands chaste they shouted forth, 
Names dear to virtue, wedded love, and worth. 


And this their method is, I deem, while flames 136 
Still burn them; with such skill and care must: 
they 
Seek Heaven, and food such use upon the way, 
And balm provide, balm which each last wound 
claims. 








Canto XXV. 83 


Notes. 








NOTES TO THE TWENTY-FIFTH CANTO. 


3. “ Zaurus ... the Scorpion.” The sun’s meridian being 
in Taurus, and, therefore, at the Purgatorial Mountain, in 
Aries, the time indicated would be two o’clock in the after- 
noon. The fleeting day counselled haste. The Scorpion is 
said to be involved in darkness, because its stars are antipo- 
dal to those of Taurus. 

22. “ Meleager.” A Grecian hero,son of Mars and Althza, 


. or, according to others, of CEnais and Althza. At the birth 


of the hero, the Sparing Sisters, the Fates, honored the 
mother and her infant with their presence. Ovid, JZe?. viii., 
Dryden’s translation, thus describes the fright they gave the 
mother on that occasion: 


** There lay a log unlighted on the hearth, 
When she was laboring in the throes of birth 
For th’ unborn chief; the fatal sisters came, 
And raised it up, and tossed it on the flame, 
Then on the distaff a light portion place 
Of vital flax, and turned the wheel apace; 
And, turning, sang, ‘To this red brand and thee, 
O new-born babe, we give an equal destiny ;? 
So vanished out of view. The frighted dame 
Sprang hasti y from her bed, and quenched the flame. 
The log, in secret locked, she kept with care, 
And it, while thus preserved, preserved her heir.” 


Diana, as the story continues, offended at the neglect of 
her rites by an A£tolian king, sent a wild boar to ravage the 
fields. Meleager’s pursuit of the boar is called the hunt of 
Calydon. He presented the boar’s head to Atalanta. Her 
uncles desiring to possess it, he slew them; and his mother, 
offended at his violence, threw upon the fire the fateful brand, 
and as it wasted to ashes the life went out of Meleager. 

Virgil reminds Dante that as divine appointment, and not 
the loss of blood, ended the days of Meleager, so the divine 
plan may bring leanness where there is no loss, and no need, 
of food. . 


84 Purgatorio. 





Notes. 





25. “ Mirror.” Dante’s meaning is that, as change of form 
controls the reflections in a mirror, so changes in the soul 
affect the condition of the spiritual body. 

48. “Jts source.’ The heart. 

63, 65, 66. “ He erred... intellect... no organ.” The 
allusion appears to be to Averrhoés, the great commentator 
ont Aristotle. Dante places Averrhoés among the ancient 
worthies in the Lower World, mention of him being made in 
the last line of the Fourth Canto of the Inferno. Averrhoés, 
it would seem, saw in spiritual bodies no organism (as, in the 
question of sight, the organism of the eye) for the exercise of 
the intellectual powers, and therefore adopted the erroneous 
conclusion that spiritual bodies were not possessed of intel- 
lectual powers. 

Dante’s idea of the intellectuality of spiritual bodies has 
its foundation in the writings of Origen and other ancient 
fathers. 

“Anima intellectiva remanet destructo corpore.” Saint 
Thomas, Summa, i. 98, 3- 

70. “ The primal Mover.” God. 

79. “ When Lachesis’ hands the thread have spun.’ Dante 
here gives intimations of the idea pervading his wonderful 
descriptions of the organization of bodies in the life im- 
mortal: that of the shade-body of the Lower World, and of 
the spiritual body of the Purgatorial Mountain. These in- 
timations begin at line 79, with the words: . 


*‘ When Lachesis’ hands the thread ave spun,” 


that is, when the limit of human life has been reached, and 
the life immortal has begun, whatever the destination of the 
individual soul. Dante here intimates also the radiance of 
the flame-body of the effulgent soul exalted to heaven and 
the blinding splendor of the glorified body of the resurrection, 


‘* Even as a coal in flame abundant borne,” 


which will call for increase of power in the eye to sustain its 
excessive glory. See the Fourteenth Canto of the Paradiso. 











Canto XXV. 85 


Notes. 


. . 








These ideas of Dante’s constitute the most wonderful thing 
in what in a note to the Inferno is denominated imaginative 
eschatology, and the only, as it is the unsurpassable, creation 
of what might be denominated exact eschatology, in litera- 
ture. Some of the Danteans seem to think that Dante has 
aid herein from Virgil, in the discourse addressed by Anchises 
to Aineas on the origin of mind and matter, but this is foreign 
to the question of the modes and laws relating to the organi- 
zation of spiritual bodies. The disciple herein has gone far 
beyond his Master. 

Dante’s lofty and unapproached originality on this subject 
so excited the enthusiasm of Varchi, that he exclaims, as well 
he might: “I not only confess, but I swear, that as many - 
times as I have read it, which day and night are more than 
a thousand, my wonder and astonishment have always in- 
creased!” 

86. “ On one or the other strand.’ That is, on the shore of 
the sea at the mouth of the Tiber, or on the shores of the 
Acheron in the Lower World. 

88. “ High cliffs or gloomy halls.” That is, the Mountain 
of Purgatory, or the Lower World. 

110. “ To the right hand turning.” The Poets on the Pur- 
gatorial Mountain turn, as we have seen, always to the right. 
This brings their right hands to the brink or edge of the 
mountain, towards the ocean. Cantos xix. 79; xxii. 122; 
XXVi. 4. 

122. “ God of highest clemency.” First words of a hymn 
containing a prayer for purity. 

127. “A man I know not.” Luke i. 34. 

132. “ Callisto.” Callisto (most beautiful) or Helice (re- 
volving round the pole) was an Arcadian nymph beloved by 
Jupiter. Disguising himself as Diana, he accompanied the 
nymph to the chase, and surprised her virtue. But one day 
when Goddess and nymph were enjoying a bath together, 
the Goddess discovered her condition, and in her anger con- 
verted her into a bear. 

Not one Goddess but another pronounced against Callisto : 


86 | Purgatorio. 





Notes. 


_» 








for, as might be supposed, her betrayal brought upon her the 
vehement jealousy of Juno, in relation to which Longfellow 
quotes Addison’s translation of Ovid, JZez. ii.: 


‘** But now her son had fifteen summers told, 
Fierce at the chase, and in the forest bold ; 
When, as he beat the woods in quest of prey, 
He chanced to rouse his mother where she lay. 
She knew her son, and kept him in her sight, 
And fondly gazed ; the boy was in a fright, 
And aimed a pointed arrow at her breast, 
And would have slain his mother in the beast: 
But Jove forbade, and snatched them through the air 
In whirlwinds up to heaven, and fixed them thcre ; 
Where the new constellations nightly rise, 
And add a lustre to the Northern skies, 


**When Juno saw the rival in her height, 

Spangled with stars, and circled round with light, 

She sought old Ocean, in his deep abodes, 

And Tethys, both revered among the Gods. 

They ask what brings her there: ‘ Ne’er ask,’ says she, 
‘ What brings me here; heaven is no place for me, 

You ‘ll see, when Night has covered all things o’er, 

Jove’s starry bastard and triumphant whore 

Usurp the heavens; you'll see them proudly roll 

In their new orbs, and brighten all the pole.’ ” 


139. “ Last wound.” In allusion to the final letter P of the 


seven inscribed by the Angel in the foreheads of the denizens 
of the Purgatorial Mountain. 





CANTO TWENTY-SIXTH. 





ARGUMENT: 


The Poets proceed, meeting many spirits, divided into two 
processions, which, as they meet in the flames, exchange 
embraces. They are two classes of the lascivious. Each 
class reproaches itself. Outcries are heard, on one side of 
“Sodom!” on the other of “ Pasiphaé!” 


TIME: Afternoon of Easter Tuesday. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Dante. The shade of Virgil. Guini- 
celli. Arnault. Spirits in lamentation, song, and praise. 


PERSONS APPEARING: Numerous spirits. 


WHILE on the brink thus passed we, one by one, 
Oft would me my good Master’s warning hail: 
“Have care, thou, that my cautionings thee 

avail!” 

Smote keen on my right shoulder now the Sun 
Whose light irradiate all the cloudless west, 
Blue but for that, in white serenely dressed. 

And gave my shadow to the umber’d flame 
A ruddier tint: and on this sign I saw 
Shades many passing look with wondering awe. 


88 Purgatorio. 





Questions addressed to Dante. 





Hence first to speak of me occasion came; 10 
For to each other heard I them repeat: 
‘Tn him seems substance, sure, to have its seat.” 
Then certain of them, far as they could come 
Without the space o’erstepping where they burned, 
T’wards me approached, and on me glances 
turned. 
“© thou fore whom, not that thy mood’s more 
dumb, 
But reverent rather, go the others first, 
Attend to me here burned by fire and thirst. 


‘Nor I alone thine answer hereto need ; 19 
For all these feel more thirst for it than fills 
ZEthiops’ or Indians’ dreams with rippling rills. 

Unto the truth hereof us do thou lead ; 

How dost thou bar the Sun, as if not yet 
Had Death thee caught in his devouring net?” 

Thus of them one to me, and no delay 
Had held my words in rendering what he sought 
Had not mine eyes another novelty caught. 


For through the middle of the flaming way, 28 
Another party met these face to face, 
And I kept mute what they might do to trace. 
To diligence each was hurrying each, all all, 
And, meeting, each kissed each, no pause being 
made, 
And none being by this brief salute delayed. 
E’en so an ant, whose dusk battalion small 
Another meets, will greet an ant therein, 
Perchance his path to learn or favor win. 








Canto XX VI. 89 








He speaks of Beatrice. 





And that same moment that the greeting ’s o’er, 37 
Before the foot hath time one step to take, 
All into rivalry brisk of shouting break ; 

The later party: ‘Sodom and Gomorrah!” 
The rest: “ Into the cow Pasiphaé won 
That might the bull into her luxury run!” 

Then as the cranes that, part to Rhipzean snows 
Might fly, and part to sandy wastes, these frost, 
Those sun, avoiding, as from purposes crossed, 


Comes forward one band, while the other goes, 46 
And, weeping, they rehearse their hymns, and 
shout, 
Thereafter, words which speak their penitence 
out; 
And near my side there drew, e’en as before, 
The self-same shades who had my words besought, 
And with their looks was kind attention fraught. 
I, who their leaning twice had seen, forbore 
No longer; “Souls,” I said, “of bliss secure 
Whene’er these flames shall make ye fitly pure, 


“Nor crude nor ripened have my limbs re- 
mained 55 
On earth, but here are with me, duly served 
With blood and articulations, all preserved. 
I hither come, for clear sight to be gained ; 
Above a Lady is, whose favor fair 
Wills that I, mortal, through your realms may fare. 


. But so may fondest wish of yours soon meet 


Such realization that the heavenly Home, 
Whose love abounds beneath its limitless dome, 


. 


90 Purgatorio. 





Hymns. Shouts. 








“Shall you embrace, as ye shall us so greet 
As to declare yourselves, and, too, that throng 
That opposite to your path have passed along.” 

Not otherwise doth, dumb, the mountaineer stand, 
Who, rough and rustic, to the city strays, 

And his confusion by his looks betrays, 

Than did those shades in their ethereal land. 

But when this first amazement had been passed, 
Which in high hearts is sure not long to last, 


64 


“Blessed be thou,” he then did recommence, 73 
Who sought us first, “who: of our coasts dost 
"seek 
Experience for those dwellings of the meek! 

The throng that goes not with us gave offence 
For that, wherefor, in all his triumph’s sheen, 
Great Cesar heard himself denounced as ‘ Queen.’ 

Thence, as they leave us, cry they ‘Sodom,’ shame 
Unto their burning adding, as ye ’ve heard, 
When, as they passed, they shouted forth that 

word. 


‘“‘Hermaphrodite our own transgressions flame,’ 82 
And, for that we not human law observed, 
But t’wards the appetites low of animals swerved, 

By us proclaimed is, in our own disgrace, 
Whene’er we part, ihe name of her attired 
In bestial wood and by lewd frenzy fired. 

Now canst thou clearly forth our trespasses trace. 
If thou, perhaps, by name wouldst know us all, 
Time fails nor could I every name recall. 





Canto XXVI. QI 


Guido Guinicelli. 








“Thy wish to know me my permission grants: 9 
I Guido Guinicelli am, and tears 
Shed late me place where cleansing stills my fears.” 

Such joy was mine as two sons felt whom chance 
Their mother brought to quell Lycurgus’ ire, 
Only that rose my joy to heights still higher, 

That moment that the honored name I caught, 
For he mine, and my betters’, Father shone, 
Whene’er love rhymed in sweet and gracious tone ; 


And speech and hearing lost, and wrapt in 
thought, 100 
Long time I went, and only on him looked, 
For nearer to approach, the fire not brooked. 
When fed mine eyes were with delight, my tongue 
Made tender to him of my service framed 
In words which my profound regard proclaimed. 
Then he to me: “ Footprints thou leavest among 
My thoughts, and so distinct that their plain trace 
The waves of Lethe never can efface. 


“But homage such must have a true design, 109 
And therefore say what is the cause wherefor 
Thy words and looks t’wards me such fondness 

bore.” 

And I to him: “Those dulcet lays of thine 
Which, long as lasts our beautiful modern speech, 
Shall us to love their very ink-marks teach.” 

“ Brother,” said he, “ there stands one in advance,” 
And there he pointed, ‘whom showed words of 

pith 
To be of our loved tongue a better smith. 


92 Purgatorio. 





Guittone. 








“‘ Love-verses and the prose that speaks romance 18 
His mastery owned, and let the foolish prate 
Who think him of Limoges doth him outrate. 

To noise more than to truth they lend their ears, 
And thus they build their quick opinions crude 
Ere art or reason hath their minds imbued. 

Thus had, of old, Guittone favoring peers, 

Who cried him up with vigilant, keen, applause ; 
But there the truth hath made most people pause. 


“ Now if thine ample privilege opes the way 127 
For thee to mount to that high cloister’s walls 
Which Christ the Abbot of its college calls, 

To Him for me an ‘Our Father’ say 
So far as doth befit this state where power 
To sin upon our hopes not now doth lower.” 

Then, to make way, perhaps, for one who near 
Came to him from behind, he in the fire 
Dived like a fish whose swiftness men admire. 


T’wards him so pointed out, whom saw I clear, 136 
I moved, and to him said that my desire 
And honoring breast his name sought to ac- 
quire, 
And these frank words he spoke: “ Your kind 
demand 
And courteous words are such that me compel, 
In answer thereto, what you ask to tell. 
I am Arnaud, and with this penitent band 
Walk, weep, and sing; my follies past I hate, 
And future happiness here rejoicing wait. 





Canto XX VI. 93 


Notes. 








“ Therefore I beg you by that power divine: 45 
Which guides you onward to the stairway’s end, 
That with thy prayers my sufferings thou wilt 

blend,” 

Then hid in flames which penitent souls refine. 





NOTES TO THE TWENTY-SIXTH CANTO. 


5. “ln white serenely dressed.” That is, the presence of 
the western sun made the blue of the sky change to white. 
This seems a trivial observation, at first glance; but when 
considered with many others, perhaps all of little value in 
themselves, they establish the justice of the remark so often 
made, that no poet has so truthfully described the effects of 
light. No poet has come so near to nature. 

The same effect which Dante notes in the evening, may be 
found in the morning, sky: it changes from saffron to gray, 
and finally to white, and ¢ez comes the sunburst. 

We may well address to Dante the words of Cowley, in 
his Hymn to Light: 


‘* Say from what golden quivers of the sky 
Do all thy winged arrows fly?” 


34. “ An ant.” 
** And all 
Eager as ants, when, mindful that impend 
The winter storms, they a great pile of wheat 
Attack and place in store. Goes through the grass 
The black array, and in a narrow track 
The booty rolls. Some ’gainst the greater grains 
Their shoulders push; some force the march and urge 
The idlers on, while all the progress boils.” 
Fourth inetd, 402. 


40. “ Sodom and Gomorrah.” “*...Nam eorum animi, 
qui se corporis voluptatibus dediderunt, earumque se quasi 
ministros przbuerunt, impulsuque libidinum voluptatibus 
obedientium, deorum et hominum jura violaverunt; corpori- 
bus elapsi circum terram ipsam volutantur; nec hunc in 


94 Purgatorio. 





Notes. 





locum, nisi multis exagitati szeculis, revertuntur.’ Ille deces- 
sit; ego somno solutus sum.” Close of the Dream of Scipio. 
Cicero’s Republic, vi. fin. 


‘To be imprisoned in the viewless winds 
And blown with restless violence round about 
The pendent world; or to be worse.” 
Measure for Measure, 3, i. 


41. “ Pasiphaé.” 


** And (fortunate she 
If herds had never been) Pasiphaé soothed 
With love she held towards the snow-white steer. 
Unhappy damsel! with what madness seized! 
With lowings feigned of Proetais’ daughters filled 
The fields were vocal made, but not with beasts 
So base a union theirs, albeit they feared 
The yoke upon their necks might come, and felt 
Upon their smooth and broad-arched brows for horns. 
Unhappy damsel! thou o’er hills dost roam, 
While he, his snowy side on hyacinths soft 
Reclining, chews, beneath the ilex black, 
The pale green grass, or in the great herd seeks 
Some favorite out.” 

Fifth Pastoral (Varus), 45. 


43. “Rhipfean.” A range of mountains in ancient Scythia, 
modern Russia. 


*'The world, 
So high as rounds its curve in Scythian lands 
And summits steep Rhipzan, sinks as low 
*Midst Libyan gales.”? 
First Georgic, 240. 


“* Such is the hardy race severe and wild 
Which, *neath the stars that circle round the pole, 
Is by Rhipzan storm-bursts buffetted, 
And wraps its vigorous forms in tawny furs 
Torn from the beasts that roam its heights and glens.”” 
Third Georgic, 383. 


52. “‘ Leaning.” Leaning to the limit of the flame-circle. 
59. “A Lady.” Beatrice. 
78. “Cesar.” According to Suetonius (chap. xlix.), the 


pity 








a 


Canto XX VI, 95 


Notes. 








Roman soldiery, on occasion, would deride Cesar as having 
submitted to disgraceful relations with Nicomedes, King of 
Bithynia. A precious occasion, of course, would be a 
triumph, where they would call him “Queen!” and shout at 
him as they did, at his triumph at the close of the Gallic 
War: “Czsar nunc triumphat qui subegit Gallias! Nico- 
medes non triumphat qui subegit Czesarem!” 

87. “ Ln bestial wood.” The cow made by Dedalus. 

92. “ Guinicelli.” Guido Guinicelli, whom Longfellow de- 
clares to be the best of the Italian poets before Dante. A 
native of Bologna, his most celebrated poem is a Canzone 
on the Nature of Love, which goes far towards justifying 
Dante’s warmth of praise. Rossetti, Zarly ltalian Poets, 
gives a version of this poem under the title of Zhe Gentle 
Heart. 

94. “Lycurgus.’ King Lycurgus had placed his child in 
the care of Queen Hypsipyle. Through her neglect the 
child was stung by a serpent, and her sons, Eumenius and 
Thoas, came upon the scene just in time to save their mother 
from the resentment of the king. According to the account 
given by Statius, ZZebaid, v. 949, the Queen was saved by 
Tydais: 3 

* But interposing Tydais rushed between, 
And with his shield protects the Lemnian Queen.” 


120. “ He of Limoges.” Gerault de Berneil, of Limoges, 
noted by Longfellow as one of the most famous Troubadours 
of the thirteenth century, and, in the verdict of literary his- 
tory, as the superior of Arnaud. The old Provencal biogra- 
pher quoted by Raynouard, Chotx de Poésies, v. 166, says he 
was called “the Master of the Troubadours,” and adds that 
“he passed his winters in study, and his summers in wander- 
ing from court to court with two minstrels who sang his 
songs.” q 

123. “ Guittone.” We have seen high praise bestowed upon 


- Guittone in the Twenty-fourth Canto. Dante intimates that 
_ fashions change as to poets. 


142. “ Arnaud.’ Arnaud Daniel, the Troubadour, was, 








says Longfellow, the i 

of six stanzas of six lines each, with the same ie 
peated throughout the thirty-six lines, and in a peculiar order 
He was also the author of the metrical romance of Zaz 

of the Lake. Millot and Reynouard speak of his poe 
standing in terms of disparagement. re F 








=v" 





a 


CANTO TWENTY-SEVENTH. 


ARGUMENT: 


At the solicitation of the Angel attending the spirits, and of 
Virgil, Dante walks into the flames, and although heated 
intensely is not burned. Dante falls into a sleep, and 
dreams of Leah and Rachel, allegories of the Active and 
the Contemplative Spheres of Life. They arrive at the 
Terrestrial Paradise, and at this point Virgil says he now 
allows Dante to govern his own movements; but both he 
and Statius remain with him. — 


TimE: Evening and night of Easter Tuesday, and dawn of 
Easter Wednesday. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Dante. The shade of Virgil. An 
Angel. Voices. 


PERSONS APPEARING: Statius and other spirits. 


So stood the Sun as when his earliest rays 
Forth vibrate on the heights where streamed the 
blood 
His Maker shed, while over Ebro’s flood 
Shines lofty Libra, and the Ganges strays 
Boiled in noon-heats ; and, as the daylight waned, 
Round us from God’s glad Angel radiance rained. 
The brink he trod, outside the flames’ deep dread, 
And sang: “ Blest are the pure in heart,” in 
tones 
So clear that such no human melody owns. 


98 Purgatorio. 





The cleansing Flames. 








Then, as we came more near him, thus he said: 10. 
“Not further doth one go, ye holy souls, 
Untouched by fire ; pass ye within its folds, 

And by the song beyond be your ears won.” 

I, when I heard his saying, was as lead, 
Laid in the grave, so far my senses fled. 

Mine hands I clasped, and straightened me thereon, 

And scanned the fire, and grim, sad memories 
turned 
Of human bodies I had once seen burned. 


Turned t’wards me kindly looks my gentle Guides, 19 
And Virgil spoke: ‘“ May here be torment, Son, 
Not death ; remember realms remote we won ; 

Remember Geryon and the rugged sides 
Of rock-ribbed Hell through whose demesnes 

we trod; 
Wilt thou not trust me, nearer now to God? 

Be thou assured, if thou shouldst stand for years 
Millenial wrapped by flames like this around, 
Thou would’st not bald by one sole hair be found. 


“ And if, that I deceive thee, thou hast fears, 28 
Approach, and test it with thy garment’s hem 
Before herein thou dost my word condemn. 

All fear aside now lay, lay all aside, 

Advance thou safe, come, be thou undismayed.” 
But still, though conscience-clear, fear held me 
stayed, 

And, seeing that I so stubborn did abide, 
Somewhat disturbed he said, ‘‘ Now, Son, see, all 
That thee from Beatrice severs is this wall.” 


4 
cof 
? 
4 


As oped their lids at Thisbe’s well-loved name 37 
The dying Pyramus’ eyes, and her espied, 
What time the mulberry was with purple dyed, 
E’en thus mine obduracy being made more tame, 
I to my wise Guide turned at that loved word, 
Her name, which e’er mine inmost fountains 
stirred. 
“How now?” he queried then, the while his head 
In pose he held, “ Yet stay we here?” then 
smiled 
- As smiles one when an apple leads a child. 


Canto XX VIT. 99 


The Name of Beatrice prevails. 








Into the fire before me then he sped, 46 
While Statius, who had moved aside, he prayed 
Would, after me, the flaming walls invade. 

_ Arrived therein, if I had had my will, 
I would have cooling sought in molten glass, 
So did the burning every limit pass, 

While, for my help, discoursed the loved Sire still 
Of Beatrice: “ Ah!” he said, as on he went, 

“ Her eyes I seem to see upon me bent!” 


Drew us a song that on the other side 55 
We heard, and we, on that alone intent, 
Came from the burning where began the ascent. 
“Come, blessed of my Father, come,” was cried 
Within a splendor of such radiant blaze 
That I could not mine eyes towards it raise. 
“The night is near,” it added, “‘ fades the day ; 
So, tarry not, but onward press, before 
Is hung the western sky with darkness o’er.” 


100 Purgatorio. 





The luminous Night. 





Straight forward through the rock arose our way, 64 


And such its place was that the final rays 
The sun cast forth were holden from my gaze. 
Not far had we the defile’s stairs explored, 
When loss of shadow, now no longer met, 
My Sages showed and me the sun had set. 
And ere one tint were o’er the horizon poured, 
And claimed the immeasurable scene had Night, 
As held in vassalage to her sombre might, 


Each of us of a stair his bed had made ; 73 
Not that delight had failed us, but that rose 
The Mount’s rough mould our progress to 

oppose. 

Even as the goats that until noon have played 
Upon the mountain-tops, and now, being fed, 

In quiet ruminate till the sun is sped, 
Hushed in the shade where them the goat-herd 
tends 
While o’er his staff he leans, and them in eye 
Keeps while the heats their panting bosoms try, 


And, as the swain that all the long night spends 82 

Beside his quiet flock, and watches there 

That no wild beast their tender flanks may tear, 
So did we three abide, in our night scene, ; 

I as the goat, and as the herdsmen they, 

Begirt by rocks and waiting for the day. 
Between the rocks but little sky was seen, 

Yet, in that limited field, the stars I saw, 

Which, large and luminous, held my soul in awe. 





So ae le ee ee ee 





Ee ee ee 


——— ss as ee eee 


—_—e FF eee) =n 


} 
, 
. 





Canto XX VII. IOI 


The Ascent to Eden. 








_ And, as I marked their large resplendent sheen, 9 


Sleep on me seized, sleep that of happenings near, 
Before the event, brings tidings dimly clear. 

It was, I think, the hour when, from the East, 
First on the Mount beamed Cytherea’s light, 
She whose fair orb with love seems ever bright. 

Dreams ‘fore me brought of youth and grace a 

feast, 

A Lady walking in a lea, where sought 

Her lithe hands flowers, and this her song I 
caught : 


“Know, whosoever may my name inquire, 100 
That I am Leah, and that well it fits 
To gather garlands my fair hands, while sits 
My sister Rachel at her glass, nor tire 7 
The hours she sees therein her beauteous eyes ; 
But mirrors mine the lakelets are and skies ; 
And she as eager is her charms to see 
As I to wear my garlands, mine to do, 
And hers to see, such aim hath each in view.” 


And now, as comes the dawn gives pilgrims glee, 109 
Who joy the greater as the space is less 
That keeps them from the home they would 

caress, 

The darkness fled, on every side, in rout, 
And with it sleep ; and, seeing upon their feet 
My princely Guides, rose I the day to meet. 

“That fruit delicious, which, the sprays throughout, 
The search of mortals after ne’er doth cease, 
This day, shall set thy longings, Son, at peace.” 


102. Purgatorio. 





Virgil’s Mission about to close. 





Virgil to my glad ear these words addressed, 118 
Glad in a measure that could ne’er be passed, 
Words that embraced of joy a universe vast. 

For flight I felt such longing and unrest, 

Desire so great to mount unto the skies, 
I seemed to feel wings on my limbs arise ; 

And when behind us was the stairway all, 

And we, at last, stood on the topmost grade, 
Virgil his eyes upon me kindly laid, 





And said: * Son, unto me it did befall 127 
The temporal fire to show thee and the eterne, 
But now of me thou canst no further learn. 
My mind, mine art, for thee hath thus much done ; 
Let joy and pleasure guide thee now; here snares 
And tortures flee with all their burdening cares. | 
Behold, upon thy forehead shines the sun ; 
Behold the grass, the various plants, the flowers, 
The bright spontaneous growths of myriad 
bowers. 


“Until those bright eyes bring their wondrous 


light, 136 
Eyes which, by weeping, brought me to thine 
aid, 


Here may’st thou sit, or walk from glade to glade. 
No further word or sign from me invite ; | 

Thine own free-will thou hast, upright, discreet, 

And its monitions safe thy mind will greet ; 
Crowned, mitred, now, thyself thou ‘It rule aright.” 


m . - 





Canto XX VII. 103 


Notes. 











NOTES TO THE TWENTY-SEVENTH CANTO. 


1. “So stood the Sun.” The time was sunrise at Jerusalem, 
and therefore sunset at its antipodal point, the Mountain of 
Purgatory. At the same time, it was, necessarily, noon in 
India and night in Spain beneath the constellation of the 
Scales antipodal to those of India. The reader will recall 
the beginning of the Second Canto, wherein the order is 
reversed: it is there suszset at Jerusalem, and sunrise at the 
Mountain; and consequently night in India, beneath the 
same constellation. 

8. “ Blest are the pure in heart.” “ For they shall see God.” 
Matthew v. 8. 

37, 38. “ Thisbe... Pyramus.” Babylonian lovers, victims 
of obdurate parents and fatal misunderstandings. Living in 
adjoining houses, they conducted their affair of the heart 
through a hole in the partition wall, and thus matured an ap- 
pointment to meet at the tomb of Nisus. There Thisbe ar- 
rived first, but encountered, to her dismay, a lion which had 
just slain an ox. The girl fled to a cave, but in her flight 
let fall her mantle, which the lion tore and soiled with blood. 
Pyramus came, and finding the mantle torn and soiled, sup- 
posed that Thisbe had been killed, and, in his frenzy, fell 
upon his sword. When Thisbe issued from her retreat, and 
found the dead body of her lover, she slew herself with the 
same sword. The scene of the tragedy was at the foot of a 
mulberry-tree, whose fruit, then white, has, in memory of 
this unfortunate pair, ever since been purple, the color of 
their blood. Their story forms the subject of one of the AZez- 
amorphoses of Ovid. 

48. “ Statius who had moved aside.” Statius had, for some 
time, occupied a position between Virgil and Dante. He had 
then changed his position. 

58. “ Come blessed of my Father, come.” Matthew xxv. 34. 
These words begin the Introit used on Wednesday of Easter 
Week, and the Poets, in this Canto, enter upon this day in 
Purgatory. 


104 Purgatorio. 





Notes. 





59. “ A splendor.” It is conceived that we should here 
understand that the excess of light, in place of the fanning of 
a wing, removed from Dante’s forehead the last P. 

71. “Might.” Longfellow quotes from Dr. Furness’s 
Hymn, and from the Ancient Marinere: 

** Slowly by God’s hand unfurled, 


Down around the weary world, 
Falls the darkness.” _ 


‘* The sun’s rim dips; the stars rush out ; 
At one stride comes the dark.” 


92, 97. “Sleep ... dreams.” YDante’s dream of Leah and 
Rachel prefigures, as he himself tells us, the near event of 
the appearance upon the scene of Matilda and Beatrice. 
Leah in the Old, and Martha in the New Testament, are the 
types of the Active Life; Rachel in the Old, and Mary in 
the New, are the types of the Contemplative Life. Matilda, 
devoted to the Active Life, follows Leah and Martha; 
Beatrice, devoted to the Contemplative Life, follows Rachel 
and Mary. 

“Truly it should be known” says Dante in the Convifo, 
iv. 17, “that we can have, in this life, two felicities by fol- 
lowing two different and excellent roads, which lead thereto ; 
namely, the Active Life, and the Contemplative.” 

In the church of Saint Peter in Chains, in Rome, as decora 
tions of the monument elected to the memory of Pope Julius 
the Second, the statues of Leah and Rachel by Michael 
Angelo stand one on each side of his Moses. 

113. “ Upon their feet.” 

“* Nor was AEneas less of early hours 
A friend than was the king. He was awake 


And up.” 
Eighth Aineid, 465. 


115. “ That fruit delicious.” Happiness. 

130, 142. “ My mind, mine art ...Crowned... mitred.” 
The mind and the mitre seem to some to represent the 
powers of the Contemplative Life, the art and the crown 











Canto XX VII. 105 


Notes. 








those of the Active, or, as in behalf of those so construing 
the passage, is well expressed by King John of Saxony: 
“Durch Ausbildung des speculativer und praktischen In- 
tellects bist du hierher gelangt.” The incidental occasion, 
however, appears to be one apart from the special point in 
hand. The adored Virgil is about to disappear from the 
scene. He kindly fixes his eyes upon the Bard of Florence, 
and addresses to him his final words. There is ground, 
therefore, for the supposition that the use of the expressions 
“mind” and “art” is philosophical in a general sense, and 
that the use of the expressions “crowned” and “mitred” is 
intended to recall allusions elsewhere in the Poem to the 
imperialistic ideas of Dante, as a stanch Roman of the ideal 
olden times, insisting upon the division of the prerogatives 
of the state from those of the church. The personal com- 
pliment to Virgil is obvious. It makes him, a Poet of the 
pre-Christian age, the dispenser, not only of intellect and art, 
but of power, at least of the insignia of power, political and 
religious : 
** Perch’ zo te sopra te corono e mitrio.” 


CANTO TWENTY-EIGHTH. 


ARGUMENT: 


As the Poets are enjoying the Terrestrial Paradise, they ob- 
serve Matilda. She and Dante hold a conversation in the 
presence of the two other Poets. Matilda tells them of 
Lethe and Eunoé, and refers to those passages in the 


works of the ancient Poets which recall the memories of 
the Golden Age. 


Statius still remains with Dante, and will be mentioned in the 
two last Cantos of the present division of the Commedia. 


Virgil also remains, but will return to the Lower World in the 
Thirtieth Canto. 


TIME: Morning of Easter Wednesday. 
PERSONS SPEAKING: Dante. Matilda. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The shade of Virgil. Statius. 


THROUGHOUT those heavenly woodlands whose 
dense shade 

With living green made mild the sun’s new gold, 
Eager to find what might their depths unfold, 

At once I from the brink in wonder strayed, 
Along the level, with pleased gait restrained, 
Upon a soil above which fragrance reigned. 

A balmy air, which breathed in changeless flow, 
Upon my forehead played, and with a sweet, 
Kind touch did my enraptured senses greet. 


\ 


\ 


} 
} 
; 
j 
| 
P| 
j 
7 
; 
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Canto XX VIL. 107 


The Exquisite Landscape. 











And bent this gentle wind the branches so 10 
With tremulous motion t’wards that side which 
gave 


The sacred Mount’s first shadow to the wave, 
That still, in their brave tops, without annoy, 
The birds, delighted, all their lessons tried, 
And warblings spread throughout the charmed 
air wide, . 
And filled the hours of prime with welcoming joy, 
While to their jocund songs the foliage sent 
Responsive whisperings forth with odors blent, 


Such as from bough to bough each other chase, 19 
When through the pines on Chiassi’s sounding 
shores 
The surging southern breezes AZolus pours. 
Already me had carried my slow pace 
So far into the antique wood that lost 
The place I had which I did first accost, 
When lo, my further course a stream’s waves barred, 
Which to the left with dimpling waters laved 
The grass that on its emerald margin waved. 


All waters that on earth are purest, marred 28 
The least with substances that dim and stain, 
Ne’er could the clearness of this stream attain, 

As, in its sweet brown bed, it moves profound 
’Neath the perpetual shade which gently wraps 
Suns’ rays and moons’ e’er from its lisping lapse. 

My feet were stayed, but passed mine eyes beyond 
The other bank to scan the various dyes 
Wherewith the May there rivalled sunset skies ; 


108 Purgatorio. 





Matilda. 





And there appeared unto mine eyesight fond, —_ 37 
F’en as with wonder sometimes doth possess 
The mind which only that thought would caress, 

A Lady, all alone, who, as she went, 

Was singing, and selecting flowers, which, choice, 
Made all the pathway where she moved rejoice. 

** Ah, Lady beautiful! to whom hath lent 
Love his own beams to warm thee, if the heart 
May testimony take thy looks impart, 


““May it thee please to approach the river’s 
marge,” 46 
I said to her, “so close that to mine ear 
May what thou singest manifest be and clear. 
This place and thy fair self my memory charge 
With what and where Proserpina was, when lorn 
Her mother wept, and she from Spring was torn.” 
As doth a Lady, in her dancing turned, 
Her feet restrain with slow and easy grace, 
So that foot gradually to foot gives place, 


Thus, on the ground where red and gold tints 
burned, 55 
She t’wards me came, nor in aught other wise 
Than would a shrinking maid with downcast 
eyes ; 
And my request was granted, and I heard 
The dulcet voice so near that wrapped me round 
The melody and the meaning of its sound. 
Soon as she stood where were the grasses stirred 
By waves the beauteous river rolled, she me, 
’Neath eyelids raised, her eyes allowed to see, 





—_——— 





Canto XXVIII. 109 





Her Discourse. 





Whence on me shone such fire as never came 64 
From Venus’ lids, what time her son’s keen shaft 
Tore her white breast, and missed its wonted craft. 

Upon the bank she stood, and smiled, the flame 
Of lively colors in her hands, from bowers 
That lofty land fills with spontaneous flowers. 

The stream is held but paces three apart 
But not the Hellespont’s flood, where Xerxes 

passed, 
(To human pride a curb that e’er will last,) 


More hatred poured within Leander’s heart 73 
That it ’twixt Sestos and Abydos rolled, 
Than this, not opening, made my breast to hold. 
“Ye strangers are, and, possibly, in this place,” 
She said, “of all our race the joyous natal nest, 
Ye from my smile some inference wrong may 
wrest, | 
Or seem therein unfriendly thoughts to trace ; 
But gives the psalm ‘Thou, Lord, hast made me 
glad’ 
Enlightenment such as seers and prophets had. 


“But thou who foremost art, and didst me call, 82 
Say if thou more wouldst hear, for answers mine, 
As need may be, I bring to doubts of thine.” 

** These waves,” I said, ‘and forest sounds that fall 
Mine ears around clash with a faith I held, 

And which to abandon I am now compelled.” 

And she: “ How that arises cause doth give 
For wonder in thy mind I will relate, 

And thus the haze that thee surrounds abate. 


IIO Purgatorto. 





Fall of Man. 





“The First Good, who sole in His joy doth live, 9x 
Man good created, and this place assigned 
That herein he might peace eternal find. 

Through fault of his short while he here sojourned ; 
Through fault of his to tears he turned and toil 
His laughter free and sports nought else could 

foil. 

That might not vapors which beneath are spurned 
From land and water, mostly thence through heat 
Exhaled when temperatures unequal meet, 





‘“‘Thence make ascent to vex here man’s estate, 10 
This Mount was raised towards the Heaven so 
high, 
And b’yond its Gate these vapors do not fly. 
Now since the general atmosphere elate 
Wheels, by its primal impulse driven, where 
nought 
To check its direct onward course is brought, 
Upon this summit, which on all sides stands 
In living ether, doth this free air bound, 
And make the dense umbrageous forest sound ; 


‘“‘ And in the plant such power resides when fans 109 
The breeze its limbs, its virtue fills the air, 
And it abroad, on all its wings, doth fare; 

And yonder earth, as may its merits claim, 
Of soil or climate, takes the seed, and nurse 
Therefrom the seasons plants and fruits diverse. 

Now, this being known, no marvel ’t is when name 
None can a plant that springeth from the earth, 
Because it oweth to this fair land its birth. 





-- tort Re eae 















i“ oF THE 
UNIVERSITY 
Canto XX WU Ipy) op \ AAI 
Lethe. Eunoé. 
“ And further learn, this sacred lofty plain 118 


Of every seed is full, and fruits doth bear 

The like whereof hath ne’er been gathered there. 
The water in this stream is from no vein 

By vapors fed which in the cold condense 

And loses breath or gains through casual vents ; 
’T is from a fountain sent of sure supply, 

Which, through God’s will, regains what it doth 

lose, 
Nor unto rivers two doth aid refuse. 


“Each river claims its several virtue high: 127 
This flood destroys of sin all memory more ; 
That all past good doth to the mind restore. 

Lethe the one, Eunoé the other ’s named, 

And none effect hath either until taste 
Thereof hath us beneath its influence placed ; 

And by Eunoé’s other sweets are tamed. 

And now, albeit thy thirst is slaked, and more 
Of heavenly truths I give not from my store, 


“Vet a corollary still I ’ll freely give, 136 
Deeming that not less grateful will be found 
What doth beyond my promise given abound. 

Those who at that time sung when feigned to live 
The Golden Age was and its blissful hours © 
Perhaps fed dreams Parnassian on these bowers. 

Here man was innocent, here was endless Spring, 
Here every fruit that e’er from arbor hung ; 
Here is the nectar of which each one sung.” 


112 Purgatorio. 





The Smiling Poets. 








Then did my body I, in gentle swing, 145 
Towards my Poets turn, and marked the smile 
That on their faces had reposed the while; 

But to her beauty still mine eyes did cling. 


NOTES TO THE TWENTY-EIGHTH CANTO. 


1. “ Those heavenly woodlands.” Now that the summit of 
the Purgatorial Mountain has been reached, it will be well to 
recall those passages in the text and notes which describe 
its origin and elevation, especially the Second Canto of the 
present division of the Poem, at line 1, and the Third, at line 
15, as well as the Twenty-eighth of the Paradiso at line 139. 
The Mountain is described by Dante as the loftiest elevation 
on the globe. At its summit is the Garden of Eden, the 
Terrestrial Paradise, whence Adam and Eve were banished. 

Milton’s description of the Terrestrial Paradise is found 
in the Fourth Book of the Paradise Lost. It and Dante’s 
Terrestrial Paradise recall the much feebler pictures by other 
Poets: that of the Island of Calypso by Homer in the Fifth 
Book of the Odyssey, and of the Garden of Alcinous in the 
Seventh; that of Colonos by Sophocles in his Gadipus 
Colonus ; that of the Garden of Amida by Tasso in his 
Serusalem ; and that of Mount Acidale by Spenser in his 
Faerie Queene. 

16. “ Welcoming joy.” ‘The bird-twitterings in the early 
dawn of Spring have found their way into the fairest lines of 
the Poets. Virgil and Milton have excelled therein. 

It should be borne in mind that these sounds are peculiar 
to the season in which Dante supposes himself to have been 
on the Purgatorial Mountain. 

20. “ Chiassi.” A spacious pine-forest which stretches 
along the seashore from Ravenna to Cervia. Doubtless its 
towering trees often cast their shadow upon the Author of 
the Commedia. 

25. “A stream.” ‘The river Lethe. 








Canto XX VIII. 113 


Notes. 








** Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate; 
Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep; 
Cocytus, named of lamentation loud 
Heard on the rueful stream ; fierce Phlegethon, 
Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage. 
Far off from these, a slow and silent stream, 
Lethe, the. river of oblivion rolls 

‘ Her watery labyrinth, whereof who drinks 
Forthwith his former state and being forgets, 
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.” 
Mitton, Par. Lost, ii. 577. 

40. “A Lady.” Either an allegorical personage represent- 
ing the Active Life, or, as the commentators generally sup- 
pose, the Countess Matilda, daughter of Boniface, Count of 
Tuscany, and wife of Guelph of the House of Suabia. In 
the view of all who have attempted an estimate of her char- 
acter, this lady is admitted to have been a person of extraor- 
dinary merits, moral and intellectual. In the view of Napier 
(Florentine History, vol. i. chaps. 4 and 6), the principles which 
governed her career were the protection of her own independ- 
ence, and also that of the church at large, from the attacks of 
the emperors, and the protection of individual members of the 
church from feudal tyranny. Always generous towards the 
church, she, at her death, devised to the reigning pontiff, Greg- 
ory the Seventh, all her patrimonial estates, reserving, how- 
ever, from the gift everything that might pertain to the exer- 
cise of civil jurisdiction. Her liberality has been the subject 
of criticism, but Napier judiciously observes that “the power 
that tamed a Henry’s pride, a Barbarossa’s fierceness, and 
afterwards withstood the vast ability of a Frederic, might, 
without shame, have been reverenced by a girl whose feel- 
ings so harmonized with the sacred strains of ancient tradi- 
tion and priestly dignity.” 

50, 65, 74. “ Proserpina ... Venus... Sestos.” It will be 
observed that Dante, enraptured with Matilda’s grace and 
beauty, compares her to Proserpina beloved by Jove, and 
Venus wounded, and Hero, burning with a despairing love for 
her Leander. It will not surprise us, therefore, to find him 
opening the Paradiso with an apostrophe to Apollo. 


114 Purgatorio. 





Notes. 





72,73. “ Xerxes... pride.” Xerxes invaded Greece with 
an army estimated by Herodotus at a figure largely exceeding 
two million of men. The estimate is probably extravagant, 
but the number is supposed to have exceeded that of any 
army ever placed in the field. Xerxes crossed the Heilespont 
with a fleet whose sails whitened the Mediterranean: he re- 
crossed it, in flight, in a small bark, and almost wholly unat- 
tended. 

73. “ Leander.” 


** What of the youth within whose bones harsh Love 
His great flame pours? No doubt, in night’s late hours, 
He blind straits swims by abrupt storms disturbed, 
While o’er his head heaven’s mighty gate resounds, 
And to the rocks complain the dashing waves, 
Nor can his wretched parents him recall, 
Nor she, the maid, whom cruel Fate assigns 
To die upon his dead lips washed ashore.” 
Third Georgic, 259. 

80. “ Thou, Lord.’ “¥or thou, Lord, hast made me glad 
through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy 
hands.” Psalm xcii. 4. 

85, 86. “ These waves...and forest sounds.” In allusion 
to what Statius had said in the Twenty-first Canto at line 
45, as to the cessation of natural phenomena at the Gate of 
Saint Peter. 

94. “ Short while.” Only seven hours, according to Adam’s 
own account in the Twenty-sixth Canto of the Paradiso at 
line 139. 

102. “ /ts gate.” The Gate of Saint Peter. 

144. “ Nectar.” 


‘Ver erat zternum, placidique tepentibus auris 
Mulcebant zephyri natos sine semine flores. 
Flumina jam lactis, jam flumina nectaris ibant.” 
Ovip, Mz. i. 3. 
146. “ The smile.” Longfellow remarks that Virgil and 
Statius smile at this allusion to the dreams of Poets. 











} 
A 
: 
; 


eS 


CANTO TWENTY-NINTH. 
ARGUMENT: 


Hosannas are heard, and in unmatched splendor appears the 
car of the Church Triumphant, drawn by a Gryphon, and 
attended by the four living creatures described by Ezekiel 
and Saint John, and by the Virtues, evangelical and cardinal, 
and by Moses, Luke, Paul, and the elders and doctors of 
the Church. 


TIME: Morning of Easter Wednesday. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Matilda. Spirits singing the praises of 
God. . Four and twenty Elders singing the praises of the 
Church. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Gryphon. The Angels shouting 
Hosannas. The four living creatures. Moses, Luke, Paul, 
and Doctors in vision and quotation. Faith, Hope, and 
Charity. Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance. Dante. 
The shade of Virgil. 


SINGING, as one enamored, she again 
Broke forth in song, and thus her voice had rest: 
“Whose sins are covered, ye dwell ’mongst the 

blest.” 

And even as Nymphs that eager sought to attain, 
Among their sylvan haunts, now one the sun, 
Now one the shade, as mood of each might run, 

So moved she on, against the current’s course, 
Along the bank, abreast of me who mused, 

And longer steps than hers to take refused. 


116 Purgatorio. 





Celestial Music. 





A hundred paces ’t was not there across, 10 
From her to me, and there turned short the 
stream, 
Whereat I saw the East before me gleam ; 
And had of time our journey met small loss, 
When round t’wards me she turned her comely 
head, 
And “ Brother, look and hearken,” then she said. 
And lo! I saw, in sudden luminous trails, 
The forest gleam throughout its vistas deep, 
As though must there the living levin leap, 


But since the levin, as it flashes, fails, 19 
And that still more and more in splendor grew, 
Thereof my mind sought out the solvent true. 

And through the luminous air an exquisite strain 
Of melody ran. Then did it me aggrieve 
To think upon the hardihood strange of Eve; 

For there where earth did like the heavens remain 
In loyalty, she, but just created, will 
Had not Heaven’s high injunctions to fulfill, 


Which had she honored, I had sooner shared, 28 
And for a longer time, those joyous hours 
To paint which language owns its feeble powers, 
While through that primal garden on I fared 
Enwrapt with fruits the eternal pleasure yields, 
And in thought soaring to still loftier fields, 
Before us shone, like as a thing of flame, 
The space the living verdure ’neath, and heard 
Was now almost that music’s every word. 











Canto XXIX. 117 
Invocation, 
Muses, ye Virgins holy, if ’t e’er came 37 


That, for your sakes, I hunger suffered, cold 
Or vigils, their reward not now withhold ! 
Now, Helicon, be thou through my bosom rolled, 
- And let Urania and her choir assist 
To put in verse things that the thought resist ! 
Onward a little space, seven trees of gold 
Seemed to invite us to their radiant leaves, 
But vagueness sometimes in this way deceives ; 


And when so near I was as to behold 46 
These objects closer, which now sight revealed, 
By vagueness somewhat hitherto concealed, 

The reasoning faculty wise that moulds discourse 
Did them as candlesticks high discern; and, 

strong 
And plain, “ Hosanna,” came in jubilant song. 

Above them, from the socket’s golden source, 

Rose flames divine, which passed the midnight’s 
scene, 
When, at her full, careers the moon serene. 


To my good Virgil I in wonder turned, 55 
And he, in wonder, gave me back the look 
Which he from mine own wondering visage took. 

Then still those lofty things which burned and 

burned 
I watched, and saw move with a motion slow 
Which brides new-wedded easily would outgo. 

The Lady chid me: ‘“ Why is thy desire 
Extended only to those living lights? 

Comes after them a scene which thee invites.” 


118 Purgatorio. 





The Procession. 








Then saw I people following them in choir, 64 
And, as they followed, shone their garments ~ 
white, 
Whiter than earth hath ever given to sight. 
Upon my left resplendent shone the stream, 
And clear as in a mirror my left side, 
E’en as I looked, was figured on its tide. 
When I had now attained the marge extreme, 
And nought ’twixt me and all that scene arose, 
To aid my view I gave my steps repose; 


And I beheld those lights in line advance, 73 
And by them seemed the air a painting made, 
And they like trailing pennons were arrayed, 

In each of which did its own radiance dance, 
Their sevenfold tints like those the Sun’s bow 

shows, 
Or those the girdle of fair Delia knows. 

Each ensign shone in heaven a lengthening lance, 
And was the width their seven high splendors filled 
Ten paces, so to me it seemed so thrilled. 


Beneath a heaven with tints like these made fair 82 
Came four and twenty elders, two by two, 
With lilies crowned, advancing into view. 

““O blessed thou,” their song so stirred the air, 
“’Mongst Adam’s daughters! And thy comely 

face r 

Shall still continued blessings ever grace.” 

After that throng elect had passed along, 
Upon the flowers and beauteous leaflets rare, 
Which of that marge attested nature’s care, 





Canto XXTX. II9 


_ 
The Car. 











Even as in heaven succeed stars’stars in throng, 9 
Close after them four animals walked, and green 
The frondage was that on each one was seen. 

With six wings every one of them was graced, 

All full of eyes; from such eyes Argus gazed, 
As would be seen if he to life were raised. 

My Reader, rhymes more ask me not to waste 
In their behalf; my purse owes other debts, 
And prodigality poverty oft begets. 


But read Ezekiel, who describes them, borne 100 
As he them saw, from northern regions cold, 
In whirlwind, fire and clouds terrific rolled. 
And liking such as by them there was worn, 
Was worn even here ; and, as to their six wings, 
With me is John, who difference herein brings. 
The space surrounded by the four a car 
Triumphal held two-wheeled, which there moved 
on 
Superb, and by a Gryphon’s neck was drawn. 


And held he both wings so as not to mar 109 
The stripes whereof the middle one ran between, 
And three and three outside were pulsing seen. 

The wings pierced heaven, ascending b’yond the 

sight ; 
Of gold he was, far as the bird form reigned ; 
Of white the rest was, with vermilion veined. 

Not only Rome with car so keenly bright 
Ne’er Africanus nor Augustus praised, 

But b’yond the Sun’s its radiant splendors blazed, 


120 Purgatorio. 





And its Attendants. 





That erring car which Tellus’ fervent prayer 18 
Moved Jove by his mysterious word of doom 
In fires he thereto missioned, to consume, 

At its right wheel danced on three maidens fair, 
Whereof was one so ruddy that if sent 
A fire within, her tint had with it blent. 

The next in all her flesh and members gleamed 
As if of emerald made; the third a glow 
Of purity had like newly-fallen snow. 





And now their leader fair the white one seemed, 127 
And now the red; and by the one who led 
A song was sung which fast or slow them sped. 
And at the left wheel four in purple clad 
Made festival, one the rest directing wise, 
In whose calm brows were seen three thoughtful 
eyes. 
When this quaternion further progress had, 
Two old men came, dissimilar in attire, 
But with traits each which admiration fire. 


One shows himself as of that patient flock 136 
Hippocrates led, him whom kind Nature gave 
Care o’er the animals she with skill would save; 

The other had the temper of the rock, 

And shone his sword with edge and glitterance so 
I trembled, though the stream ’twixt us did flow. 

Next four I saw pass on with humble guise, 

And following last, in sleep, with countenance 
keen, 
Alone, an aged man was walking seen, 





Canto XXTX. 121 


The Crash of Thunder. 








And habited were these seven in similar wise 45 
To those in front, yet not the lily round 
Their reverend heads engarlanded was found ; 
They bore the rose and other vermeil flowers ; 
At distance slight the eye had sworn that flame 
From out their brows in leaves and tendrils came. 
Opposite to me the car stopped with its powers ; 
The thunder crashed; an interdict’s voice seemed 
heard, 
And nought in that array magnificent stirred. 


Stood still the vanward ensigns in those bowers. 154 


NOTES TO THE TWENTY-NINTH CANTO. 


3. “ Whose sins are covered.” “Blessed is he whose trans- 
gression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” Psa/m xxxii. 4. 

12. “ The east.” We are now prepared to construct a map 
embracing the path, direction, and positions of Dante and his 
fellow-Poets, the position and course of the river, and the 
positions, path, and direction of Matilda. From lines 12 and 
25 of the preceding Canto we learn that, the time being 
morning, the Mountain casts its shadow towards the west; 
the breeze was, then, blowing from the east, with the diurnal 
motion “the primal impulse” (line 103) of the solar system, 
or, to use an equivalent expression, against the motion of the 
earth. Dante meets a stream on his left. The general direc- 
tion of this stream (Lethe) must, therefore, have been east 
and west. He beholds Matilda on the other, the north, side 
of the stream. He and Matilda (she still remaining on the 
north side), turn towards the south, going up-stream, and, 
after rounding a bend in the stream, face eastward again. 
Thus, we find that the stream flowed from the east, and that 
the Triumphal Procession of the Church was approaching 
from the east. 


122 Purgatorio. 





Notes. 










Procession of the Church 





<. 
Triumphant. 


i Sioaak of Dante, 
Virgil, and Statius, 
from the west. 





41. “ Urania.” The Muse of Astronomy, or things celestial, 
whom art represents as robed in azure and crowned with a 
coronet of stars. Milton, in the Paradise Lost, vii. 1, invokes 
her as transcending Olympus, and as born in heaven before 
the existence of “the Muses nine:” 

“ Before the hills appeared, or fountain flowed, 
Thou with Eternal Wisdom didst converse, 
Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play 


In presence of the Almighty Father, pleased 
With thy celestial song.” 


43, 50. “ Seven trees of gold ... candlesticks.” “ And I turned 
to see the voice that spake with me. And, being turned, I 
saw seven golden candlesticks. . . . I am he that liveth, and 
was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore, Amen; and 
have the keys of hell and death. . . . The seven candlesticks 
which thou sawest are the seven churches.” evelation i. 12, 
18, 20. 

The candlesticks of Dante are by some construed as mean- 
ing the seven Sacraments of the Church, by others as the 
seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. 

78. “ The girdle of fair Delia.” The halo round the Moon. 

83, 84. “ Four and twenty elders... with lilies crowned.” 
The four and twenty elders symbolize the four and twenty 
books of the Old Testament named by Saint Jerome in the 
preface to the Vulgate, and which he says are referred to in 
Revelation iv. 4: “And round about the throne were four 
and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty 








Canto XXTX. 123 


Notes. 








elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on 
- their heads crowns of gold.” The elders of Dante, it is ob- 
servable, have on their heads crowns of lilies. 

85. “O blessed thou.” The salutation is addressed to 
Beatrice. In the twenty-third chapter of the Vita Muova, 
Dante relates that, at a time when he was prostrated with 
illness, he dreamed that Beatrice was dead, and that, stand- 
ing by her dead body, he had formed the intention of saying: 
“O Beatrice, blessed be thou!” and had already said, “O 
Beatrice,” when his slumber was disturbed by an anxious 
attendant. The “Blessed be thou” is here spoken. He 
has uttered it in the most wonderful of dreams ever dreamed 
by mortal, the Commedia. 

92, 100. “ Four animals ... read Ezekiel”? Four “living 
creatures ” supposed to symbolize the four Evangelists. Each 
had four faces and four wings. Zzeiel i. 4. John gives the 
number of the wings on each as’six, Revelation iv. 8, and 
says that the creatures were full of eyes before and behind. 
According to Ezekiel, of their four faces, those on the right 
side were of a man and of a lion, on the left of an ox and of 
an eagle; but according to John, each of the creatures had 
but one face, the first like that of a lion, the second like that 
of a calf, the third like that of a man, and the fourth like 
that of a flying eagle. The lion-headed creature is supposed 
to symbolize Saint Mark; the calf, or ox-faeed, Saint Luke; 
the man or cherub-face, Saint Matthew; the eagle-headed, 
Saint John. The ox was the emblem of sacrifice. 

107. “A car triumphal.” The Church is so symbolized. 
The two wheels Dante seems to interpret as Saint Dominic 
and Saint Francis. Paradiso, xii. 106. 

108. “4 Gryphon.” A symbol of Christ in his divine and 
human nature, the lion representing his human nature, the 
eagle his divine nature. The eagle-head recalls the Church’s 
Hymn of Saint John: 


** Volat avis sine meta, 
Quo nec vates, nec propheta, 
Evolavit altius.” 


124 | Purgatorio. 





Notes. 





The lion-body recalls.a feature of the popular belief in the 
Middle Ages, that the young of the lion was born dead, and 
after three days was awakened to vitality by the breath or 
the roar of its sire, a belief which at once suggests the 
doctrine of the Resurrection. 

118. “ Zellus’ fervent prayer.” An allusion to the story of 
Phaéthon. Ovid, Jez. ii. 279. 

121. “ Zhree maidens.” The three theological Virtues, 
Charity, Hope, and Faith, to follow the order in which they 
are described by Dante. 

130. “ Four in purple clad.’ ‘The four cardinal Virtues, 
Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance. Dante gives 
Prudence three eyes, to indicate her comprehension of the 
Past, the Present, and the Future. 

134. “ Zio old men.” Saint Luke, here, of course, in his 
character of writer of the Acts of the Apostles; and Saint 
Paul. 

136. “ One.” “Luke, the beloved physician.” Colossians 
iv. 4. Hippocrates was known as “the father of medicine.” 

142. “ Four.” James, Peter, John, and Jude: John, now 
in the capacity of writer of his Epistles, and the rest in the 
capacity of writers of Epistles. 

142. “Jn sleep.” Now we have Saint John in his capacity 
of writer of the Revelation. = 

154. “ Zhe vanward ensigns.” ‘The flames of the candle- 
sticks. 











CANTO THIRTIETH. 


ARGUMENT: 


A hundred Angels, chanting, shower the triumphal car of the 
Church with lilies and roses, and other flowers of choice 
hue and fragrance; and, in the midst of this delightful 
shower, and descending upon the left side of the car, and 
afterwards taking her station upon the right of it, appears 
Beatrice in a robe brilliant with tints of flame, green mantle, 
and white veil, and crowned with an olive-wreath. Dante, 
in consternation, looks around for Virgil, who, to his sur- 
prise, he finds has departed. Beatrice addresses to Dante, 
in the presence of the Angels, reproachful speeches, which 
cause him to shed tears. A choir of Angels soothe and 
sustain Dante under these reproaches, and Beatrice ad- 
dresses this angelic choir. 


TIME: Morning of Easter Wednesday. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: A hundred Ministers and Messengers, 
Angels, cheering Beatrice and scattering flowers over the 
car and herself; a choir of Angels reassuring Dante. 
Beatrice. Dante. , 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Gryphon; and the Virtues, 
Elders, Sages, Evangelists, Doctors; and the four at- 
tendant creatures. The shade of Virgil. Statius. 


WueEn there the highest heaven’s Septentrion bright 
(Which setting never, rising never, knew, 
Nor o’er whose face, except sin, cloud ne’er flew, 
And which to every one a beacon-light 
Held forth of duty, as the lower holds 
To voyagers whom the sea’s broad sweep enfolds) 
Made halt, that band of truth who in the van 
Betwixt its standards and the Gryphon went, 
Towards the car as to their rest seemed bent ; 


126 Purgatorio. 





Beatrice appears. 





_ And one of them, as following heaven’s own plan, 10 
“Come, Spouse, from Lebanon,” chanted, three 
times o’er, 
And made they, all, the. - song to soar ; 
And as the Blest shall come, from near and bit 
When sounds the final trump, arfd shall assume 
Again their flesh, when dawns the day of doom, 
So brought the Elder’s voice upon that car 
Celestial ministers and messengers down, 
A hundred, offering Life’s eternal crown. 


And “Blessed art thou who comest” was. their 

hail, 19 

Ané as fair flowers they scattered they did sing: 

“High-heaped in plenteous handfuls lilies 
bring !” 

I,have beheld ere now, when dawn would pale, 
_The eastern hemisphere’s tint of roseate sheen, 
And all the opposite heaven one gem serene, 

And the uprising sun, beneath such powers 
Of vapory influence tempered, that the eye 
For a long space its fiery shield could try: 


E’en so, embosomed in a cloud of flowers, aa 
Which from those hands angelical upward played, 
And roseate all the car triumphal made, 

And showered a snow-white veil with olive bound, 
Appeared a Lady, green her mantle, name 
Could not describe her robe unless t’ were fame) q 

And mine own spirit, which the past had foun 


Often, within her presence, free from awe, 
And which could never from me trembling draw, 





Canto XXX. 127 


. . And addresses Dante. 








And sight no knowledge giving me at this time, 37 
Through hidden virtue.which from her came 
forth, 
Of ancient love felt now the potent worth. 
As soon as on my vision smote sublime 
The heavenly influence that, ere boyhood’s days 
Had fled, had thrilled me and awoke my praise, 
Unto the leftward turned I, with that trust 
Wherewith a little child his mother seeks, 
When fear his steps controls and tear-stained 
cheeks, , 


To say to Virgil: ‘ All my blood such gust 46 
Of feeling moves as doth man’s bravery tame ; 
I feel the traces of the ancient flame.” 

But Virgil had from us his presence ta’en, 
Virgil of Fathers sweetest, Virgil who 
Me safely led the infernal terrors through ; 

And all that our first mother lost was vain 
To keep my cheeks from dews they had escaped, 
Cheeks that at last in weeping’s weeds wer 

draped. 


** Dante, weep not that Virgil leaves thee, thou - ss 
Who must the wounds feel of another sword, 
Must feel the’ cutting of the indignant word.” 

Even as an admiral who, from stern or prow, 
Looks out upon his fleet, and sends his cheer 
To sailors brave around the squadroned mere, 

Her on the left side of the car I saw, 

When turned I at the sound of mine own name, 
Which, from necessity, here I thus proclaim, 


128 Purgatorio. 





Emotion of Dante. 








The Lady who appeared in such pleased awe = & 
Of festival angel-honored, turned t’wards me 
Those eyes which now I saw, and yet not free, 

Because the veil that from her head flowed down, 
Encircled with Minerva’s emblem, clear 
Less than they otherwise would, them made 

appear. 

In attitude high, such as would grace a crown, 
Continued she, like unto one who deals 
Rebukes, but not the warmest yet reveals. 


“Observe me well; I’m Beatrice! Deign 73 
At last didst thou this lofty height to scan? 
And knowest thou not that happy here is Man?” 

Mine eyes fell down into the watery plain, 

But there mine image sent them to the marge, 

So much of shame did my hot forehead charge. 
In her I saw a mother’s proud disdain, 

For dztter somewhat is the sugared taste 

Of kindness toned with magisterial grace. 


Her voice was silent: Angels took the strain & 

With suddenness up, and sang: “In thee, O 
Lord, 

Hath been my hope,” and it to “my feet” 
poured. 

E’en as the snow, where living rafters green 
Crown crags where Italy’s crests her forests lift, 
At first flies fore Sclavonian winds in drift, 

But then yields softly "neath a warmth unseen, 
Whene’er the shadowless land upon it breathes, 
Like to a taper which the heat enwreathes, 2 


Canto XXX. 7 129 


Beatrice addresses the Angels. 








Such then was I, a tearless, sighless man, gx 
Before I had that choir angelic heard 
In notes whereby the eternal spheres are stirred, 

But when throughout their melodies sweet there ran 
Compassion for me more than had they said: 
“Consume him not, O Lady,” then forth fled 

In spirit and water all the ice that held 
My heart congealed, and from my bosom crushed, 
Through mouth and eyes, in sobs and tear-drops 

gushed. 


And still my grief from its touched sources welled, 100 
When she, now on the car’s right side erect, 
Thus spoke to those kind beings of Heaven 

elect : 

“ Your vigils keep ye in the e/erna/ day, 

So that no shape that may take things terrene 
Can night or sleep make to your eyes unseen ; 

And greater stress I on mine answer lay 
That he who there stands weeping may it hear, 
And sin and dole in equal measure fear. 


“Through influence not alone of those great 
orbs 109 

That make a destiny for each seed, as mar 
Or make conjunctions binding star to star, 

But by that fortune which from heaven absorbs 
Celestial graces born in vapors high, 
Whereto our feeble vision comes not nigh, 

Such had this man in his new life become, 
And potently, so that all habits good 
In him had all opposing vice withstood ; 


_— 


130 Purgatorio. 





Her Mention of Virgil. 





** But as more valuable is the soil’s good sum_—_us8 
So much the more neglect and evil seed 
Makes it to wz/dness run and briers breed, 
My look some time upheld him, for I showed 
My youthful eyes unto him, and him led 
With me in the right way, but when had sped 
My life still further, and time’s circles glowed 
Upon my second age, then leaving me, 
He could in others higher attractions see, 


“‘ And when from flesh to spirit I arose, 127 
And beauty and virtue in me grew, to him 
My charms were less, my guiding light more dim, 
And he pursued of good false dreary shows, 
That any promises made did ne’er fulfill, 
But which led captive his inconstant will. 
Nor me availed my prayers that he, inspired 
By dreams and other influences which I sent, 
Might back be called and from his folly bent. 


“Such depths he sought that I, of these means 
tired, 136 
The purpose formed that, for increase of grace, 
He might be shown perdition’s wretched race. 
I to this end the gates infernal sought, 
And him who hath him guided to this height 
Implored with tears which helped me with their 
might. 
It would God’s lofty judgments set at nought, 
If, without penitence shown by weeping sore, 
He, tasting of the food such wanderings bore, 











Canto XXX. 131 


Notes. 








“Should through Lethean waves be _ idly 
brought.” 145 


NOTES TO THE THIRTIETH CANTO. 


1. “ The highest heaven’s Sepientrion bright.” The highest 
heaven is the ninth, the Empyrean, that which rejoices in the 
immediate presence of God. The Septentrion is the flame 
of the seven candlesticks. 

The Order of the Procession of the Church Triumphant : 

1. The seven Candlesticks. 

2. The twenty-four Elders of the Old Testament. 

3. The four animals seen by Ezekiel and John. 

4. The Gryphon and car. 

5. The three Maidens, representing the Theological Vir- 
tues, Faith, Hope and Charity. 

6. The four Maidens representing the Theological Virtues, 
Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance. 

7. The seven Sages of the New Testament. 

8. A hundred Angels, who welcome Beatrice, and shower 
the car and herself with flowers. 

9. Beatrice. 

10. A choir of Angels which salutes and sustains Dante 
during the speech of Beatrice. This choir is sometimes 
supposed to be identical with the hundred Angels who 
welcome Beatrice. 

5. “ Zhe lower.” The lower Septentrion, the seven polar 
stars. These stars never set, never rise. To observers in 
the northern hemisphere they revolve around the pole. 

7. “ That band of truth.” The four and twenty Elders. 

11. “ Come, spouse, from Lebanon.” Song of Solomon iv. 8. 

19. “ Blessed art thou who comest.” “ And the multitudes 
that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna 
to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name 
of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.” A/atthew xxi. 9. 

21. “ High-heaped, in plenteous handfuls, lilies bring.” 

** Manibus date lilia plenis.” 
Sixth Aineid, 884. 


132 Purgatorio. 





Notes. 





32. “A Lady.” “ Beatrice,” says Barlow, Study of the 
Divine Comedy, p. 271, “is here represented as the principle 
of divine beatitude, or that which confers it, and bears a 
resemblance to the figure of the New Jerusalem seen by 
Saint John descending from heaven ‘as a bride adorned for 
her husband ’ (ev. xxi. 2); a representation of which, in the 
manner of Raphael, occurs in one of the tapestries of the 
Vatican, and though not arrayed in the colors of the Christian 
virtues, Faith, Hope, and Charity, white, red, and green, as was 
Beatrice, may yet be regarded as a Roman version of her.” 

34. “ Zhe past.” Beatrice died in 1290, and therefore at the 
date of the Commedia had been dead ten years. 

39. “ The potent worth.’ A due appreciation of the ex- 
alted estimate which Dante had formed of Beatrice, and of 
the adoring devotion which ruled him in regard to her, can 
only be attained by a perusal of his own story as detailed by 
him in the charming pages of the Vita Nuova. An admirable 
rendering has been giving by Norton, in his Mew Life of 
Dante, p. 1, of Dante’s account of his first meeting with 
Beatrice, both of them, beloved and lover, being children of 
only nine years : 

“ Nine times now, since my birth, had the heaven of light 
turned almost to the same point in its own gyration, when 
* first appeared before mine eyes the glorious Lady of my 
mind, who was called Beatrice by many who knew not where. 
fore she was so called.. She had already been in this life so 
long that in its course the starred heaven had moved towards 
the region of the east one of the twelve parts of a degree; 
so that, at about the beginning of her ninth year, she appeared 
to me, and I near the end of my ninth year saw her. She 
appeared to me clothed in a most noble color, a modest and 
becoming crimson, garlanded, and adorned in such wise as 
befitted her very youthful age. At that instant, I say truly 
that the spirit of life which dwelleth in the most secret 
chamber of the heart began to tremble with such violence 
that it appeared fearfully in the least pulses, and trembling, 
said these words: LZece Deus, fortior me, qui, veniens, domi- 











Canto XXX. 133 


Notes. 








nabitur mihi. (Behold a God, stronger than me, who, coming, 
will rule over me.) 


“From this time forward I say that Love lorded it over 
my soul, which had so suddenly inclined to him; and he 
began to exercise over me such control and such lordship, 
through the power which my imagination gave to him, that 
it behooved me to do completely all his pleasure. He com- 
manded me ofttimes that I should seek to see this youthful 
Angel, so that I, in my boyhood, often went seeking her, and 
saw her of such noble and praiseworthy deportment that 
truly of her might be said that word of the poet Homer, 
‘ She seemeth not the daughter of mortal man, but of God.’ 


(‘A Divinity, whom none had deemed 
From mortal man derived, but from a God.’ 
Iliad, xxiv. 258.) 


“ And albeit her image, which stayed constantly with me, 
gave boldness to Love to hold lordship over me, yet it was 
of such noble virtue that it never suffered that Love should 
rule me without the faithful counsel of the reason in those 
matters in which it were useful to hear such counsel.” 

This is deemed also a suitable place to present the closing 
words of the Vita Nuova, as rendered by the .same trans- 
lator : ‘ 

“ A wonderful vision appeared to me, in which I saw things 
which made me resolve to speak no more of this blessed one 
until I could more worthily treat of her. And to attain to 
this, I study to the utmost of my power as she truly knoweth. 
So that, if it shall please Him through whom all things live, 
that my life shall be prolonged for some years, I hope to say 
of her what was never said of any woman. And then may 
it please Him who is the Lord of Grace, that my soul may 
go to behold the glory of-its Lady, namely, of that blessed 
Beatrice, who, in glory, looketh upon the face of Him gwd est 
per omnia secula benedictus (who is blessed for evermore).” 

Miss Blow, Study of Dante, p. 62, in remarking upon these 
passages, says that in Dante’s treatment of Beatrice is found 


134 Purgatorio. 





Notes. 





the key to the Commedia; that, primarily, the Beatrice of 
Dante is “the woman, Beatrice Portinari,” but that Beatrice 
is also one with the Eternal-Womanly of Goethe, and thus 
represents the divine principle. 

48. “J feel the traces of the ancient flame.” 

“* Agnosco veteris vestigiz flammz.” 
Fourth inetd, 23. 

The last words addressed by Dante to Virgil are Virgil’s 
own words. 

49, 50, 51. “Virgil ... Virgil... Virgil.” The repeti- 
tion is of purpose, and has, doubtless, its inspiration in the 
religious idea which governed Virgil, that the triple mention 
of a word made it, in a peculiar manner, sacred. This rhetor- 
ical consecration is repeatedly observed by Virgil: as, in the 
Fourth Georgic (line 526), in the instance of “ Eurydice;” 
in the Second Book of the Aineid, twice (lines 325 and 426), 
in the instance of “ Troy”; and in the Third Book (line 523), 
in the instance of “Italy.” He especially observes it in al- 
lusion to the divine power, instances of which will occur to 
the reader. In similar form, Tasso sings that the crusaders 
saluted the City of David: 

‘* * Jerusalem !’ a thousand voices cry, 


‘ All hail, Jerusalem ! ’? hill, down, and dale 
Catch the glad sounds, and shout: ‘ Jerusalem, all hail!’ ”? 


52. “ All which our first mother lost.” That is, all the de- 
lights of the Terrestrial Paradise. 

55. “ Dante.” The only place in the Commedia in which 
the name is mentioned. 

57. “ Another sword.” ‘The metaphor of the sword, here 
begun, will be continued in the next Canto. 

72. “ But not the warmest yet reveals.” She will reveal the 
warmest in the next Canto. 

83, 84. “ Jn thee,O Lord ... my feet.” “In thee, O Lord, 
do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in 
thy righteousness . . . thou hast not shut me up into the 
hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room.” 
Psalm xxxi. 1, 8. 








Canto XXX. 135 


Notes. 








85. “Living rafters.” The forests of the Appenines, 
furnishing rafters for the edifices of Rome, and all the other 
cities of Italy. One district was thence called 7radaria, the 
district of Massa. Denistoun, Memoir of the Duke of Urbino, 
i. 4. 

** Prone fall the pines, the ilex to the axe 
Responds in echoing sounds, and to the wedge 
The ash-logs yield, and yields the straight-grained oak. 
And down the mountains roll the mighty elms. 
And, at the head of all, A2neas worked, 
Encouraging his men.” 
Sixth Aineid, 180. 

89. “ The shadowless land.” The South, the region of the 
equator, where the sun, being almost exactly in the zenith 
(the ecliptic, at its widest departure from the equator, leav- 
ing it only 23° 28’), casts but little shadow. 

115. “ Vew life.” “Vita nuova.” Dante is supposed here 
to make allusion to his work of that name. 

125. “ My second age.” This phrase refers to the death 
of Beatrice. She lived to the threshold of what Dante calls 
the second age of human life. Conzito, iv. 24) In another 
conception of the phrase as it is used here by Dante, there 
belongs to it a peculiar pathos. Her second age had come, 
she lost Dante, and passed into the life eternal. 


CANTO THIRTY-FIRST. 
ARGUMENT : 


Beatrice renews her reproaches in a speech addressed directly 
to Dante, and Dante attempts to speak, but breaks down. 
He succeeds in saying a few words, but under the further 
reproaches of Beatrice he falls senseless to the ground. 
Matilda, clasping him in her arms, plunges him in Lethe, 
whose waters bring oblivion of things evil. As he emerges 
from Lethe, the evangelical and cardifal Virtues place him 
before the eyes of Beatrice unveiled. Her heavenly splen- 
dor Dante confesses his powers are inadequate to describe. 


T1IME: Morning of Easter Wednesday. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Faith, Hope, Charity, Prudence, Jus- 
tice, Fortitude, Temperance. Dante. Beatrice. Matilda. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Gryphon and attendants. An- 
gels. Statius. 


AND then ’gainst me who saw the keen edge gleam 
Of her discourse, and felt it sore, she turned 
The glittering point, while pause for act she 

spurned : 

“Say, thou, who standest b’yond the holy stream, 
Say, if this be not true; it must be, thou, 

If truth thou speak’st, its justice will avow.” 

Such great confusion o’er my faculties reigned 
That died my voice before its organs shape 
To it had given wherein it should escape. 








a 


Canto XXXI. 137 





Dante in Tears. 





**Whereon is ’t thou dost muse?” when she re- 
frained 10 
A small space had, she asked, “‘ Answer thou me, 
The pitying wave still leaves sad memories free.” 
Fear now confusion joined, and stunned the sense, 
- While gave I forth so weak a “ Yea” that sight 
Was needed it to comprehend aright. 
And, as when breaks a cross-bow if too tense 
The bow-string to the archer’s shoulder ’s 
brought, 
And sinks the arrow ushered forth for nought, 


So, ’neath that heavy strain my strength gave way, 19 

And burst I into sighs and tears which came 

In torrents forth, and missed my voice its aim. 
** When through my wishes,” she began to say, 

“‘ Love of the good did all thy nature fire, 

And thou didst for the highest planes aspire, 
What trenches in thy path, what chains were found, 

That so thy feet impeded that no hope 

In thee gave strength with obstacles such to cope? 


“And what allurements strange or vantages 
crowned 28 

The forehead of the others that t’wards them 
The impulse was too strong for thee to stem?” 

A bitter sigh I heaved, for yet my dread 
Me almost voiceless made, but came at last 
Words which with pain reviewed the eventful past: 

“ The things that present were,” I weeping said, 
“With joys deceitful turned my steps astray, 
Soon as from your face came no guiding ray,” 


138 Purgatorio. 





Their mutual Discourse. 








And she: “ Hadst thou been silent, or denied 37 
What thou avowest, not less plain had been 
By such a Judge observed thy manifest sin, 

But when from one’s own cheeks wells out the tide 
Which doth one’s fault proclaim, the sharpening 

wheel 

Turns, in our court, against the edge of steel. 

But still that thou may’st profit by the shame 
Which thy transgression brings thee, and whene’er 
Again the Sirens sing, avoid their snare, 


“Let now thy tears abate, and be thine aim 46 
To learn how in an opposite way should thee 
My buried flesh have helped the path to see. 

Nor art nor nature e’er such pleasing sight 
Gave thee as those fair limbs, the casket bright, 
Now scattered dust, wherethrough my soul shed 

light. | | 

If, then, with me thy highest joy took flight, 

What mortal thing, since there remained none 
higher, | 
Should have had power to make thee it desire? 


“Ah! when of things fallacious the first shaft 55 
Thee struck, thou shouldst have raised thy mind 
To my high planes where error none can find. 

Thou shouldst not have allowed thy wings their craft 
To idly lose, nor wait for further blows, 

Or some slight girl, or other transient shows ; 

The birdling twice or thrice the fowler tries, 

But when its wings have all their feathers grown, 
From net or arrow swift its flight is flown.” | 





Canto XX XT. 139 





Charms of Beatrice. 





Then, even as children who stand mute, their eyes 64 
Upon the earth cast down, and, listening, meek 
In penitence pardon for offences seek, 

So stood I there while she urged’ new appeals: 
“Tf hearing thus doth pain thee, raise thy beard, 
A greater pain in seeing may be feared.” 

A sturdy holm uptorn with less plaint yields, 
When native winds its burly bole uproot, 

Or those Iarbas’ regions send acute, 


Than was the woe wherewith my chin I raised, 73 
And, when she by the beard bade show the face, 
The sting the word conveyed I well could trace. 

And when from my raised eyes I forward gazed, 

I saw those hundred ministrant and angelic 
powers 
Make pause in their glad task of strewing flowers ; 

And, still bent down in spirit I observed 
That Beatrice turned towards the Gryphon round, 
That being wherein the natures two are found. 


E’en ’neath her veil, beyond the stream broad- 
curved, 82 
She seemed to me her former self to outvie, 
More than when here she others all passed by. 
And penitential thorns so stung me sore 
That of all other loves the one which most 
Me had enthralled was now the least my boast. 
Such self-conviction smote me at the core, 
O’erpowered I fell, and what was then my state 
She knoweth well who caused such sadness great. 


140 Purgatorio. 





Dante. Matilda. Lethe. 





Then, when my heart restored my consciousness, 
note gt 
I took that o’er me stood the Lady seen 
Alone by me, and still of gracious mien, 
And “ Loose me not,” she was saying, while to the 
throat 
She in the stream had plunged me; me she drew 
Behind her, while, like to a shuttle, flew 
Her form above the waves. Near the blest shore 
“Sprinkle thou me,” I heard so sweetly sung 
That it eludes my pen and e’en my tongue. _ 


Then the sweet Lady’s arms me downward bore 100 
Plunging my head so deeply that I drank 
Perforce of that blest stream in which I sank, 

Then by her dripping, dripping, I was given 
To those four lovely ones who danced, while each 
A beautiful arm above my head did reach. 

“Nymphs here are we, but stars are we in Heaven ; 
Ere Beatrice to the world descended, place 
We held as chosen handmaids her to grace. 


““We’ll to her eyes thee lead; but for the light 109 
Divine that in them is, shall sharpen thine 
The three beyond who search each deepest mine.” 

Thus did they sing, with cheering music bright; 
Then to the Gryphon went we all, where gazed 
The eyes which she not yet towards us raised. 

“See that thine eyes thou spare not,” thus they said, 
“‘ Before the emeralds now we place thee, there 
Whence Love erewhile for thee chose weapons 

fair.” 








ae 
“ ‘ 
aie 


Canto XX XI. 14! 


Intercession of the Angels. 








A thousand longings which hot fires outsped uss 
Mine eyes held fast upon those wells of light 
That held the Gryphon fixed within their sight, 

E’en as the sun is in a mirror seen, 

Within her eyes the twofold being shone, 
One nature now, and next the other one. 

Think, Reader, how I wondered, for, while e’en 
The substance of the Gryphon showed no change, 
In her eyes shone this alternation strange. 


While I amazed and glad was, for my soul 127 
Was relishing now that food which while we 
feed, 


Increases in us for it hunger’s need ; 

The other three, whose dignity them extol, 
Came forward while they struck the lofty line, 
And danced as rose their joyous notes divine : 

“Turn, Beatrice, O, thine holy eyes,” they sung, 
“Turn to thy faithful one, who paces sore 
Hath many borne, thyself to see once more! 


“Nor needs respond to us thy favoring tongue ; 136 

Unveil, unveil, thy face to him, that he 

Thy second beauty, else concealed, may see!” 
O splendor, O eternal, living light ! 

What palest student in Pierian shades, 

Whose spirit most its sparkling fountain aids, 
That would not seem to ascend too high a flight 

In seeking lines to set thy radiance forth, 

The peerless traits of thy transcendent worth, 


142 Purgatorio. 





Bowers of Eden bright. 





As seen unveiled in bowers of Eden bright? 145 


NOTES TO THE THIRTY-FIRST CANTO. 


1. “ The keen edge.” In continuation of the use of the 
metaphor of the sword, begun in the Thirtieth Canto, line 57. 

42. “ The edge of steel.” The use of the sword-metaphor 
still continued. This metaphor, again and again returned to, 
seems to have escaped the translators, commentators, and 
critics. 

60. “ Or some slight girl.” “ Pargoletta,” a little girl, a 
sportive child at play. This phrase, in connection with an 
expression in the Twenty-third Canto, and with those in the 
Thirtieth (lines 24 and 126), has led some of the critics to 
suppose that Dante’s private life was subject to reproach, a 
supposition encouraged by the gossipping style of the annals 
of Dante’s time, like everything else in that depraved age, 
colored with the most unwarrantable insinuations, and slav- 
ishly at the service of pharisaical criticism. Aside from the 
absurdity of supposing that in a work intended for his polit- 
ical vindication an author would pronounce his own moral 
condemnation, the expressions, in and of themselves, are 
capable of a very innocent construction. The unfavorable 
criticism seems as absurd as it would be to draw unfavorable 
conclusions from Dante’s apparent admission, in the begin- 
ning of the Thirty-second Canto, that he had directed towards 
Beatrice “too intent” a gaze. As though Dante should paint 
himself in the attitude of a red-handed culprit, shrinking, like 
a felon, from the “quousque tandem” of an exasperated 
magistrate ! 

Dean Plumptre, in the notes to his translation, acquits 
Dante of the aspersions made against the purity of his char- 
acter. He suggests, in his Zzfe of Dante, liii., that Dante’s 
ambiguous phrases, “ gentucca,” “ pargoletta,” et cetera, were 
thrown out by him, in a notion, half gay, half malicious, of 
mystifying the Philistines of his own and after times. But is 
it easy to conceive that he had that much thought for the 


Ee ee a 










Canto XXX. 143 


Notes. 








Philistines ? Dante’s temperament would lead him to pay 
contempt with contempt. The careless innocence of an artist 
in search of poetic effects is possibly the key to the secret. 

72. “ Iarbas’ regions.” The regions of the South. Iarbas 
was the Getulian king from whom Dido bought the site of 
Carthage, alluded to in the unhappy vendor’s and suitor’s 
appeals to Jove (Fourth Aineid, 203) as “a little money- 
cheapened town” (Morris’s translation). For Iarbas was 
one of the Queen’s suitors, and a rejected one: 

** Despised 
Iarbas was, and so the others were, 
Those leaders brave, whom Afric’s soil makes rich 
With triumphs proud.” 
Fourth /ineid, 3. 


89. “ Oerpowered I fell.” “Ch’ io caddi vinto.” “ Vinto” 


recalls the more homely “ben vinto” of the Inferno, which 


Longfellow, in playfulness or accuracy, translates “dead 
beat.” . 

98. “ Sprinkle thou me.” The anthem, sung before solemn 
mass on Sundays, follows the fifty-first Psalm, and is as fol- 
lows: “ Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, O Lord, and I 
shall be cleansed: thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter 
than snow.” 

106. ““ Vymphs ... stars.’ The stars of the Southern 
Cross, effulgent in the First Canto, at line 23. 

113. “ Zhen to the Gryphon went we all’? Dean Plumptre 
observes hereon, in very excellent phrase: ‘ Dante is in har- 
mony with the profoundest thoughts of all masters of the 
spiritual life. The highest outcome of the work of virtue, 
grace, wisdom, is that they lead the soul to Christ.” 

116. “ The emeralds.” ‘The eyes of Beatrice. “ A greenish 
blue,” says Lani, “like the color of the sea.” By Melchior 
Messirini, who claimed to have discovered a portrait of Bea- 
trice, dating as far back as the fourteenth century, she is 
declared to have had “splendid drown eyes.” On Dante’s 
“emeralds ” the Otdimo comments thus: “ Dante very happily 
introduces this precious stone, considering its properties, axd 


144 Purgatorio. 





Notes. 





considering that Gryphons watch over emeralds. The emerald 
is the prince of all green stones; no gem nor herb has greater 
greenness; 7¢ reflects an image like a mirror; increases 
wealth; is useful in litigation and to orators; is good for 
convulsions and epilepsy; preserves and strengthens the 
sight ; restrains lasciviousness; restores memory; is power- 
ful against phantoms and demons; calms tempests; stanches 
blood ; and is useful to soothsayers.” 

Longfellow says that the beauty of green eyes, o/uelos 
verdes, is extolled by Spanish poets; and is not left unsung 
by poets of other countries. Lycophron, in his “ tenebrous 
poem” of Cassandra, says of Achilles: 


‘*Lo! the warlike eagle comes, 
Green of eye, and black of plume! ”” 


And, in one of the old French Mystery-Plays, Hist. Théat. 
Franc. i. 176, Saint Joseph is made to describe the Holy 
Child as having 


** Les yeulx vers, la chair blanche et tendre, 
Les cheveulx blonds,”’ 





—-- - | 


ee 


CANTO THIRTY-SECOND. 





ARGUMENT: 


The seven Virtues reproach Dante for bending upon Beatrice 
too fixed a gaze. The heavenly procession, escorting the 
Gryphon, marches on like a glorious army. The Gryphon 
attaches the pole of the chariot to the tree of the knowl- 
edge of good and evil. Dante falls asleep, and is aroused 
by Matilda, who, at his request, points out to him Beatrice 
seated at the foot of the tree of knowledge, attended by the 
seven Virtues. The car of the Church Dante sees attacked 
by the eagle of Persecution, the fox of Heresy, and the 
dragon of Islamism. The plumes of victory are added to 
the Church, but sin and dissension distract her career. 


TIME: Morning of Easter Wednesday. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: The seven Virtues. Dante. Matilda. 
Beatrice. Angels in songs and shouts. 


PERSONS APPEARING: Angels. Statius. Eagle. Fox. Dragon. 
Seven deadly sins. Harlot. Giant. 


So, after ten years’ thirsting, did mine eyes 
Bend to the draught, that every sense but sight 
Was lost, or from it separated quite 
By cloistering walls which round it seemed to rise, 
As in its toils the sacred smile me held, 
Toils which of old mine homage fond compelled ; 
When was my sight with sudden force aside, 
‘wards my left hand, by those sweet Goddesses 
bent, 
Whom I o’erheard to say: “’T is too intent!” 


146 Purgatorio. 





The Soldiery of the Skies. 





And, as the sight by sunshine’s splendors tried 10 
Sinks lost in radiance which at first it hailed, 
So, for a while, my power of vision failed ; 

But when mine eyes unto the lesser view 
Were now returned (the lesser view, I say, 

For from the greater was I turned away), 

I saw upon its right wing wheel, with hue 
Divine, that glorious host, and face the sun, — 
While o’er its head the sevenfold flame still shone. 


As when, for caution, with shields high advanced, 19 
A squadron turns, and bears its banner round, 
So moving till its new position ’s found, 

That soldiery of the skies, on which so danced 
Celestial brightness, had position changed 
Ere had the car’s pole yet before us ranged. 

Then t’wards their wheels the attendant maidens 

turned ; 
And moved the Gryphon, with his burden blest, 
So that not stirred a feather of his crest. 


The Lady fair who to me Lethe learned, 28 
With Statius and myself, the inner line, 

So curved, attended of those wheels divine. 

So passing through that lofty forest, waste 
Through fault of her the serpent’s craft ensnared, 
To heavenly music keeping time, we fared. 

Perhaps from where we started, were we spaced 
Where aimed would arrow-flights three attain so 

far, 
When Beatrice her descent made from the car. 





Canto XXXII. 147 





Hymns. Shouts. Discourse. 





And, with one voice, all “Adam!” murmuring 
said, 37 
Then circled they around a tree, whose bloom 
And leafage spoiled proclaimed its storied gloom. 
Its towering boughs, which further outward spread 
As higher they rise, had been by Indians deemed 
For height a wonder ne’er in their lands dreamed. 
“Thou blessed art, O Gryphon, whose beak ne’er 
Fed on these boughs, all pleasant to the taste 
Since t’wards all ill hath appetite hence made 
haste.” 


Thus round the stately tree shouts filled the air; 46 
And he, the twofold being, said: “ So must 
Be saved the generation of the just.” 

And, turning to the pole, his burden erst, 
He it drew close beneath the widowed bole, 
And unto it left bound the chariot-pole. 

Then, as our trees put forth, when burst 
The steaming heats, and with the brilliant air 
Commingles that of heavenly Lasca’s lair, 


And from its branch each leaf and floweret teems, 55 
With each its several tint, ere yet afar 
His shafts the Sun sends ’neath another star ; 
More faint than rose, more deep than violet, gleams 
Came in the fruit wherewith this tree was new, 
There where erewhile no sign of fruitage grew. 
Ne’er have I heard, not here below is sung, 
The hymn which then from that throng floated ; 
strength 
Failed me to bear its burden sweet and length. 


’ 
) 
i, 


148 Purgatorio. 





Beatrice in Guard of the Car. 





Were ’t given unto my pen or halting tongue 64 
To paint those pitiless eyes which Syrinx’s tale, 
While sped a dear-bought watching, caused to fail, 

Even as a painter whom a model guides, 

How lulled was I to sleep I would bewray: 
He may, who drowsiness readily can portray. 

Therefore my verse to mine awakening glides, 
And says a splendor rent my slumber’s veil, 
And words, “ Arise, what doest thou?” bade me 

hail. 


As, that might Peter and James and John behold 73 
In bloom the apple-tree’s boughs whereof the fruit 
Glad Angels greedily seek, and from which suit 

And spousals lasting do in heaven unfold, 

They led were, and, by Him, from slumber’s yoke 
Made free, who slumbers greater far hath broke, 

Saw that their company had the loss sustained 
Of Moses and Elias, and that change 
Was in their Lord’s guise wrought, through 

mystery strange ; 


So I revived, and consciousness soon attained 82 
That o’er me stood my kindly guide who charge 
Took of my steps Slong the river’s marge, 

And “ Where is Beatrice?” asked I, all in doubt. 

‘And she: “ Behold, beneath the leafage new 
She sits, upon the root from which it grew; 

Behold the bright forms circling her about ; 

The rest behind the Gryphon seek the skies, 
And from them deeper songs and sweeter rise.” 





Canto XXX/I. 149 





Her Discourse. 





And what she said I know not, more than that, 9 
So closed mine ears were by the sight of her 
For whom to sounds all else I made demur. 

Alone upon the very ground she sat, 

Left there a guard upon the car to hold, 
The car the Gryphon drew, behind him rolled. 

Around her made themselves a cloister’s wall 
Of heavenly rays the seven Nymphs fair who safe 
Hear Aquilon roar, hear Auster’s frenzy chafe. 


‘“‘ A forester thee a little while here I ’Il call, 100 
And where a Roman Christ is, in that Rome, 
With me thou ’It have thine everlasting home. 

Wherefore the ill-living world to guide aright 
Observe the car well, and, to earth returned, 
Write what thou seest, to be by others learned.” 

Thus Beatrice; and I did all my sight 
And mind direct where she desired, for felt 
My soul the charms “fore which it humbly knelt. 


Ne’er fire so fleet from out a heavy cloud 109 
Came down, where loftiest heights the rain-storm 
sends, 


And earth with sky in levin on levin blends, 
As I beheld come down Jove's eagle proud, 
Which through the tree flashed, and tore leaf and 
bark, 
And left, e’en on the buds, its impress stark, 
And smote the chariot with its resolute might, 
Whereat it reeled as reels a ship when, brave, 
It fights the starboard, now the larboard, wave. 


150 Purgatorio. 





Fox. Eagle. Dragon. 





Thereafter saw I in the car alight 118 
A fox, whose visage lank and carcass rude 
Showed him unfed by any wholesome food ; 

But, him upbraiding for his honesty’s lack, 

Haled him my Lady to a flight as fleet 

As for a fleshless skeleton seemed discreet. 
Then, following down again his fiery track, 

I saw into the car the eagle swoop, 

And here and there a feather leave to droop. 


And, using tones which show a heart that feels, 127 
A voice from Heaven came down, which said: 
“O freight, 
My little bark that fills, bieek full of hate!” 
It seemed, then, that the earth yawned, ’twixt the 
wheels, 
And from it rose a dragon, who his tail, 
Did through the flooring of the chariot nail, 
And, as a wasp that doth his sting withdraw, 
His tail malign, when he it backward drew, 
Brought with it plenteous wrack the bottom 
: through, 


And he rejoiced, and went his way. But saw 136 
I now the car, as grass-green fields, by aid 
The feathers gave, kindly perhaps, conveyed, 
Reclothed, the floor, the wheels, the pole, and all; 
So speedily done that longer time would part 
The lips wherethrough a sigh reveals the heart. 
And to the transformed car it did befall 
That heads upon the holy edifice rose; 
Three on the pole, four on the car, had pose. 





: 
| 
: 
| 


Canto XXXII. 151 


Giant. 








Were horned the first like oxen; but bedight = 45 
The four were with a single horn each one; 
Such monsters yet had never shamed the sun! 

Firm as a rock that crowns a mountain’s height 
Seated upon it there appeared to me 
A shameless whore, with eyes swift aught to see, 

And, as if not to lose his treasured dame, 

I saw beside her stand a giant; bliss 
They sought, at times, in fervent kiss on kiss. 


And, for that she on me set eyes of shame, 154 
Her angry paramour did her failing greet 
With scourges from her head unto her feet. 
Then, swollen with jealousy’s fires, and fierce with 
wrath, 
He loosed the monster, and it dragged so far 
Across the forest, that seemed that a bar 
Gains whore and strange beast set and their wild 
path, 


NOTES TO THE THIRTY-SECOND CANTO. 


2. “ Ten years.” The space of time since the death of . 
Beatrice. The date of her death was June 9, 1290. 

9. “ Too intent.” The innocence of this phrase is remarked 
upon in the notes to the preceding Canto. Dean Plumptre 
sees here an honest avowal of Dante’s homage rendered to a 
mortal beauty, Beatrice Portinari. Beatrice, as the symbol of 
theology, he thinks, must be sought for in other lines than 
these. 

19, 20. “As when ... a squadron turns.” Dante here, it 
will be conceded, displays a management truly admirable of 
the military metaphor. He had not served in vain in the 
campaign of Campaldino. 


152 Purgatorio. 





Notes. 





39. “Gloom.” “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou 
shalt surely die.” Gemesis ii. 16. 

40. “ts towering boughs.” “I saw and behold, a tree in 
the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great... . 
And the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight 
thereof to the end of all the earth.” Damiel iv. 10, 11. 

41. “ Zudians.” 

** Those groves which nearer to the sea 
Are found in India’s bounds, that nook extreme 
Of all our world, where, in the air driven high 
No arrow can the highest tree-top clear, 
And they a race not slow, when on their backs 
Their own familiar quivers load they feel.” 
Second Georgic, 121. 

The mention of lofty trees serves to remind one of our own 
mammoth trees in California, our gigantic sequoias and red- 
woods, which attain, sometimes, a height of four hundred and 
fifty feet; and of the Australian eucalypti, as lofty, if not 
loftier. 

43. “ Whose beak ne'er.” The phrase is supposed to signify 
the separation of the civil and religious jurisdictions. 

gi. “ Pole.” He bound to the tree the pole of the chariot, 
the pole which was made of this tree, and left it so bound. 
The chariot represents the Church; the pole of the chariot 
the cross of Christ. The belief that the cross is made of the 
tree of knowledge has its foundation in an ancient legend. 

53. “ The brilliant air” Of the month of February, when 
the sun is in the constellation of the Fishes, called here by 
Dante, “ Lasca,” the name of a fresh-water fish. 

65. “ Zyes .. . a dear-bought watching.” Juno, jealous of 
Io, turned her into a heifer, and employed Argus to watch 
her. Jupiter sent Mercury to watch Argus. Mercury told 
Argus a long and drowsy story about Syrinx, a nymph of 
Diana, beloved by Pan, but who eluded his pursuit, and after 
whom he named his flute; and, on the eyes of Argus closing 
in slumber, Mercury destroyed them. 

81. “ Through mystery strange.’ The Transfiguration. 
Matthew xvii. 5. 








Canto XXXII. 153 


Notes. 








126, 138. “ Here and there a feather... the feathers.” The 
donations made by the emperors to the church. 

143. “ Heads.” The seven heads are supposed to represent 
the seven deadly sins, the opposites of the seven virtues. 

153. “ Fervent kiss on kiss.” In allusion, probably, to the 
alliance between Pope Boniface the Eighth and Philip the 
Fair of France, which resulted in the Italian campaign made 
by Charles of Valois, brother of Philip. 

154. “On me set eyes.’ Some commentators incline to 
consider this phrase an indication that Dante, for a time, 
was reconciled to Boniface; but it seems worthy of sugges- 
tion that the phrase is one intended to support the former 
one, that the evil eyes swiftly scanned everything. The 
offence Boniface gave Philip was in breaking with him and 
recognizing Albert of Austria as emperor. 

156. “ Scourges.’ Understood to be an allusion to the 
severe treatment received by Boniface, at Alagna, from 
Sciarra Colonna and Nogaret, and their bands, and the 
troops of Philip. 

158. “ Zhe monster.” Dante, here, so calls the chariot. 
See lines 39, 56, and 57 of the next Canto. 

160. “ Across the forest.” The removal of the Holy See 
to Avignon, which Dante seems to recognize as a check 
upon the excesses of both the religious and the political 
elements. The church had become, in Dante’s estimate, so 
corrupt as to be called a monster, and Boniface so shameless 
as to be termed a hariot. If Dante is to give his pontifical 
enemy a vigorous thrust, it must be now. The poet-politician 
is about to close the Purgatorio, and he doubts, for the mo- 
ment, the propriety of an exhibition of such rancor in the 
Paradiso. As to this he will change his mind later; but, 
under present impressions, he summons all his force to deal 
his foe as fierce a blow as words and venom can inflict. 


CANTO THIRTY-THIRD. 
ARGUMENT: 


Beatrice draws Dante into conversation, and then requests 
Matilda to bathe both him and Statius in Eunoé, the 
memory of things good. 


TIME: Noon of Easter Wednesday. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: The seven Virtues. Dante. Beatrice. 
Matilda. 


PERSONS APPEARING: Statius. The denizens of the Ter- 
restrial Paradise. 


“THE heathen, Lord, are come,” such sounds arise, 
In strains alternate, three and four, which bring 
Tears to the maidens who such melodies sing ; 

And Beatrice, sad, and uttering heavy sighs, 

With such a countenance listened that scarce less 
Changed Mary at the cross her deep distress. 

But when the others gave her place to speak, 
With color of the flame, she to her feet 
Uprose, and greeting gave them meet. 





Canto XX XTIT. 155 





Beatrice encourages Dante. 





“A little while ye ’ll see me when ye seek, 10 
And then again a little, sisters mine, 
Ye shall not see me: this do ye divine.” 

And all the seven to walk she then did call, 
And, after them, her beckoning did engage 
Me and the Lady and that modest sage. 

We eleven moved on, and scarce the tenth footfall 
To earth had come, given by her feet, when look 
Her eyes gave forth mine eyes obedient took, 


And with a visage tranquil, “‘ Make more haste,” 19 
To me she said, “ that if thou wouldst me hear, 
Thou may’st have advantageous place more 

near.” 

As soon as nearer her I now was placed, 

She to me said, ‘“‘ Why, brother, by my side, 
Dost thou, unquestioning, all in silence, bide ?” 

It me befell as unto persons found 
Too much by reverence checked, when word 
None can they make before superiors heard ; 


., I through my teeth could force no perfect sound, 2s 
But said: “Thou knowest, my Lady, what I 
need, 
Let knowledge thine mine utter ignorance feed.” . 
And she to me: “ Of fear and diffidence more 
Thou shalt not have; speak not as one who 
gleams 
Of things uncertain gathers out of dreams. 
Know that the chariot which the dragon tore 
Was, and is not; but let the guilty drop 
The idea that God is baffled by a sop. 


156 Purgatorio. 





She predicts the near Future. 





“ Without an heir forever shall not be 37 
The eagle whose proud plumes bedecked the car, 
Whence, monster made, a prey ’t was ta’en afar ; 

For in good sooth what IJ narrate I see: 

The very stars whose safe conjunctions nigh 
Pass every bar and every hindrance by, 

And bring the time Five Hundred Ten and Five 
Sent forth from God shall that foul woman slay 
And that same giant sharer of her day. 





“And it may be thy clouded mind may strive 46 
With my dark saying as with Themis did, 
Or with the Sphinx, minds vexed with riddles 
hid ; 
But soon events shall be the Naiads wise 
Who shall this difficult riddle solve, nor yields 
Of grain destroy, nor flocks that browse the fields. 
The words I utter heed thou well, and prize, 
And teach to men in busy life, whose breath 
But helps them on to reach the goal of death ; 


“ And, as their teacher, this in memory bear, 55 
Not to conceal that thou the plant hast seen 
Twice here attacked by enemies strong and keen. 

_ Whoever doth its beauty spoil or tear 
With blasphemous deed doth sin ’gainst God, 


whose own 
The same is, sacred to his use alone. 
For tasting it, in suffering and desire “ 
Five thousand years and more the first soul 
yearned 


For Him who on Himself the punishment turned. 





Canto XXXTTI. 157 


Orbits of Thought. 








“ And sleeps thy genius, if that it soars“higher 64 
And top more spreading hath than other trees, 
Thou deem’st with special reasons not agrees : 

For had not vain imaginings to thy mind 
As Elsa’s waters been, and pleasure’s train, 
Like Pyramus to the mulberry, gave it stain, 

Thou in such things of moment great wouldst find 
The justice of God’s interdict firm made clear 
To men whose moral natures are sincere. 


“But since I see thee in thine intellect stone _—73 
Become, and so with sunspots stained, 
That by thee light is not from my speech gained, 
My will is, since not written thou it own, 
Thou shalt at least it in thee painted bear 
As with staff palm-wreathed pilgrims homeward 
fare.” 
And I: “As shows the wax the figure bright 
And true the seal doth on it press, so brain 
Of mine doth on it your impress retain. 


“ But why, transcending so my power of sight, 2 
Soars your much-loved discourse, that will 
Of mine to grasp it’s disappointed still?” - 
“ That thou may’st know,” she said, “‘ what school- 
ing ’s thine, 
And see at what a distance lag behind 
My love clear-sighted its instructions blind, 
And may’st thy path see is from the divine 
Estranged as much as from Earth’s orbit flies 
The higher plane far-hastening in the skies.” 


158 Purgatorio. 





Exchange of exalted Sentiments. 





Wherefore I said: “ Remembrance have I none 9 
That I estranged from you have ever been ; 

My conscience me arraigns for no such sin.” 

“ And if thy memory this much have not won,” 
She answered, smiling, “hath it for thee saved 
That on this very day thee Lethe laved ? 

And if may be from smoke a fire inferred, 
Forgetfulness such the evidence doth fulfil 
That error plagues thine alienated will. 


“Indeed from this time forward shall each word 100 
Of mine be naked, so far as ’t is fit 
It to lay bare before thy halting wit.” 

And, sparkling now, and in its radiant vault, 
More slow the Sun held its meridian time, 
Which, changing, shifts, as shift degree and 

clime, 

When halted (as one cometh to a halt 
Who ’fore a troop goes as its courier, drawn 
By something new which on his eye doth dawn), 


The sevenfold band, at a dense shadow’s verge, 109 
Such as, with forest tints and sombre boughs, 
Oft wears a bleak Alp on its lowering brows. 

Methought the Tigris and Euphrates urge 
I saw before them forth their single stream, 
Then, in two floods, like friends who linger, 

gleam. 

“O light, O glory of our kind! declare 
What stream is this which, poured from one 

source sole, 
Doth from itself in severing rivers roll ? ” 





a 


Canto XXXII. 159 


Matilda. 








“ Pray,” said to me ’t was, answering to my 
prayer, 118 

“‘ Matilda that she teach thee ;” and here came 
Response as from one seeking shield from blame. 

The beautiful Lady spoke: ‘This told I him 
With other things, and sure I am that slipped 
Not they from him by me in Lethe dipped.” 

And Beatrice now: “ Perhaps hath made more dim 
His mental vision some surpassing care 
Which often to our memory proves a snare. 


** But Eunoé see, which yonder floweth on ! 127 
Lead thither, and, as thou art wonted, life 
Give thou to aid his half-dead virtue’s strife.” 
And, as a gentle spirit that is drawn 
By no excuses, but doth promptly make 
Another’s will its own, for courtesy’s sake, 
Even so, when she me took into her charge, 
The beautiful Lady moved, and “ Come thou, 
too,” 
She said to Statius, who her graces knew. 


If, Reader, I had not the utmost marge 136 
Reached of my space, I would those sweet waves 
sing, 


That draught which me could ne’er satiety bring, 
But checks me here art with its curbs and bars, 

For full is each appointed part and line 

Within this second poem’s fulfilled design. 
From all that fallen human nature mars 

Regenerate rose I from that holiest stream, 

As trees wherefrom new buds and leaflets beam, 


160 Purgatorio. 





Eunoé. 





Pure, and made fit for mounting to the stars. 5 


NOTES TO THE THIRTY-THIRD CANTO. 


1. “ * The heathen, Lord, are come’... alternate.” The — 


three Theological and the four Cardinal Virtues chant, in 
alternate verses, the seventy-ninth Psalm, beginning: “O 
God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy 
temple have they defiled.” 

10. “A little while.’ From Christ’s discourse at the Last’ 
Supper: “A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, 
a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.” 
Fohn xvi. 16. 

15. “ That modest sage.” Statius. 

36. “Sop.” There would seem to have been an old super- 
stition in Florence that the vengeance of the family and 
friends of a murdered man would be baffled if, within nine 
days from the date of a murder, the assassin could contrive 
to eat a sop of bread and wine upon the grave of his victim. * 
The superstition argues the fearful barbarity of the times. 
For it has a practical result. It amounts to this: that any 
one having following enough to make his way to the grave, 
and to defy and overpower its guardians, acquired thereby 
a charter to defy the law, and toclaim immunity for his crime. 

37. “ Without an heir.” In the Sixth Canto Dante has 
shown his resentment of the Emperor Albert’s (the German 
Albert as he calls him) neglect of Italy,in never having come 
within its borders. He here, doubtless, alludes to this 
neglect. 

43. “ Five Hundred Ten and Five.” DVX, Dux, Leader, 
- supposed by some to refer to Can Grande della Scala, but 
' by others, with greater probability, to Henry, Duke of Luxem- 
burg, who succeeded Albert, under the title of Henry the 
Seventh of Germany. Villani, though a Guelph, speaks of 
Henry as awise and just and valiant monarch. Dante met 
him on his entrance into Italy, in 1311, with a letter which 
accosts him as the savior of Italy, the restorer of the golden 








Canto XX XT. 161 


Notes. 











age, and compares him to the “Lamb of God who taketh 
away the sins of the world.” The death of the monarch 
was a great blow to Dante. He beheld his ideal ruler, on 
whom he had placed all his hopes for his country, and all 
his personal hopes, vanish into the realms of the hereafter. 

47, 48, 49. “ Themis ... Sphinx ... Naiads.” Themis, 
the impersonation of law, after the destruction of the world 
by a deluge, puzzled Deucalion and Pyrrha with the com- 
mand to repeople the earth “ by throwing their mother’s bones 
behindthem.” The earth, they divined, was their mother, and 
her bones were stones. First Georgic, 60. 

The Sphinx, a fabulous monster, propounded the riddle 
answered by (Edipus : “ What animal walks on four legs in 
the morning, on two at noon, and on three in the evening ?” 

The Naiads offended Themis. She punished them with 
loss of cattle and crops. 

Dante and the reader may, like Deucalion and Pyrrha, . 
conjecture the mystical significance of the tree’s height and 
spread in the progress of the Paradiso. It should be noted 
that the Canto starts out with a mystical saying: lines 10, 11, 
and 12; a saying followed by “ This do ye divine! ” 

It may well have been that Dante had in mind at this 

e point, the mysterious and forgotten dream of Belshazzar re- 
called to his memory by the Hebrew prophet, and _inter- 
preted to him by the same prophet, the interpretation being 
the approach of the era of Christianity. He may have been 
pondering the. momentous words of Daniel to Belshazzar: 
“There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and He 
will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed.” 

56. “ Zhe plant.” Throughout the notes of the commen- 
tators to these passagés there is a struggle to make the free 
and the car of the church, the symbol of the union of church 
and state. This appears a strained construction, and one 
not necessary to the comprehension of the allegory, besides 
being at variance with Dante’s stanch orthodoxy. The 
state is the eagle. The church is the cay. Butler, in par- 
ticular, labors to give the car, and even its seven attendants, 


162 Purgatorio. 





Notes. 





the virtues, a political significance. The tree is the tree of 
the Garden of Eden, and its significance, therefore, it is sub- 
mitted, is exclusively theological. 

57- “ Twice.” The first attack by the eagle; the second 
by the giant. ‘ 

62, 63. “First soul... Him.” Adam, and Christ. The 
usual reckoning is four thousand and thirty-six years, but 
Latini, Dante’s tutor, following Eusebius, placed the interval 
at five thousand two hundred and fifty-four. 77ésor, i. 42. 

64, 65. “ Higher ... trees.’ The unsolved riddles here 
appear to be why is the tree so lofty? and why does it so 
spread? It will be observed that Dante continues to insist 
that Beatrice’s explanation is unintelligible to him, and the 
text thus makes an enigma upon an enigma. Lombardi, in 
a note to line 70, gives Torelli the credit of clearing up the 
text “with that golden clearness and simplicity,” Lombardi 
. says, “which is peculiar to Torelli.’ But can we adopt To- 
relli’s elucidation? Does it not fail to elucidate? May we 
not rather believe Dante, who declares that he was not il- 
luminated by Beatrice’s explanation? Dante seemed to de- 
light rather in verbal enigmas and conversational puzzles, 
and, as though by way of apology for inflicting this one upon 
the reader and the commentators, he guarantees that Bea-e 
trice, in the future, shall speak plainly. 

The place in which Dante has this sportive passage with 
Beatrice and the commentators, and his and their readers, 
is well selected. The matter is too pious for the Inferno, 
and it was his last opportunity for the Purgatorio, its very 
last Canto, and he availed himself of this margin of oppor- 
tunity. 

Torelli’s unexplaining explanation is: “ That the tree God 
has made for his own use, and that man ought not to attempt 
its ascent, ought not to aspire to the knowledge of good and 
evil; for it was for attempting this that Adam was pun- 
ished.” Dean Plumptre as vainly explains that “the ideal 
empire expands as it grows, and its topmost branches are the 
widest spread.” : 








Canto XX XIII. 163 


Notes. 








68. “ Elsa.” A river in Tuscany, having petrifying quali- 
ties. ~ 
go. “ The skies”? An intimation of the general plan of 
paradise. : 

96. “ On this very day.” Savors of coquetry. 

105. “ Degree and clime.” ‘The hour was noon, the season 
Spring. In the Spring the days lengthen, and the apparent 
motion of the Sun is therefore slower. 

112. “ Tigris and Euphrates.’ The rivers in the garden 
of Eden were four: Pison, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates. 
The two latter are used here as identical with Lethe and 
Eunoé, the oblivion of evil, and the memory of good. 

120. “Shield from blame.” We may imagine that the 
woman, Beatrice Portinari, is pouting, while the divine Bea- 
trice, symbol of theological truth, is for the moment absent 
from the scene. This Canto of the Purgatorio seems to be, 


almost throughout, a light and playful one. 


126. “4 suare.’ The jealous woman ! 


_ PARADISO. 


saeammnidiieeions 


GENERAL: ARGUMENT OF THE PARADISO. 


DANTE finds himself in the presence of Beatrice, and, 
like another Glaucus, becomes divine by feasting his 
eyes on her beauty. So divine he rises with motion, 
imperceptible, but incredibly swift, into the heavenly 
spheres. In the sphere of the Moon-are seen the 
spirits of the unfortunate religious. Dante and Bea- 
trice meet the spirit of Piccarda, his sister-in-law. In 
the sphere of Mercury, the heaven of the spirits of 
the great dead, the Poet and the Maiden meet the 
spirit of Justinian. He recalls the whole scope of 
Roman history. The sphere of Venus, the heaven of 
the spirits of lovers, makes them acquainted: with 
Cunizza and Folco. They find in the sphere of the . 
Sun the heaven of the spirits of the theologians. 
There Saint Thomas of Aquin recites the praises of 
Saint Francis of Assisium, and Saint Bonaventura 
eulogizes Saint Dominic; the praises of the Trinity 
are sung; and Beatrice and King Solomon are 
brought into conversation. In the sphere of Mars, 
devoted to the felicity of martyrs and crusaders, Cac- 
ciaguida, ancestor of Dante, discourses on the past 
and present of Florence, predicts Dante’s exile, and 
urges him to write the Commedia. Jupiter’s sphere, 
the heaven of the spirits of righteous rulers, shows 
them the Eagle of Christ, who holds discourse on 





Paradiso. 165 





General Argument. 








historical events. In the sphere of Saturn, the heaven 
of the spirits of the contemplative, Dante and Beatrice 
listen to a discourse from Saint Peter Damian, and 
to one from Saint Benedict. They ascend to the 
sphere of the Fixed Stars, the heaven of the spirits 
of the metaphysicians, and review the orbits of the 
planets, the Earth being in the remote perspective. 
Exquisite melodies announce a Sun, Christ, and stars, 
Mary and Gabriel; and Saint Peter examines Dante 
on Faith, Saint James examines him on Hope, Saint 
John examines him on Charity. The sphere of Primal 
Motion shows them the heaven of the spirits of the 
moral philosophers; and the Empyrean brings them 
into the immediate presence of God. There Beatrice 
assumes her throne, and Saint Bernard attends Dante. 
The beauty of Beatrice is described in the choicest 
and most enamored terms, and she discourses on 
celestial subjects, the plan of heaven, the questions 


' relating to Creation, Will, Salvation, Redemption, and 


passages of tender interest between herself and Dante 
frequently find place. The Poet’s personal woes and 
longings come often before the Reader; and the 
utmost brilliancy of light, the utmost rapidity of 
motion, and the utmost ecstasy of fervor form ele- 
ments of this portion of the Poem. 


CANTO FIRST. 


ARGUMENT: 


Dante begins this division of his Poem with a promise to 
relate all he saw in Paradise, as far as human power and 
human memory may avail, and with an invocation of the 

- benignant aid of Apollo. Beatrice appears before him, 
gazing on the sun. He turns his eyes in the same direction. 
Then, removing his eyes from the contemplation of the 
sun, he fixes them on Beatrice’s face, feeding on the beauty 
thereof as Glaucus fed on the sea-weed which made him 
divine, and so rises. Beatrice instructs him on the innate 
desire of the soul to regain its source in the skies, and she 
informs him that the rapidity of his motion in attaining 
Paradise has surpassed that of the lightning. 


The time passed in Paradise is four and a half days, from 
noon of Easter Wednesday to the First Sunday after 
Easter. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Dante. Beatrice. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Angels. The blessed spirits. 


THE glory of Him who moveth all things shines 
The universe vast throughout, but part more 
bright 
Is from its glow, while part hath less of light. 
Within that Heaven, which, in His wise designs, 
Hath most of light, was I, and saw what none 
Can tell, or know, whose journey thence is done; 
Because our intellect doth itself so whelm, 
In drawing near to what is its desire, 
That memory halts, that tuneless falls the lyre. 


ee 


Canto I. 167 








The Poet’s Triumph. 





But whatsoever of that sacred realm 10 
I had the power within my thoughts to store 
Shall through my song towards those circles 

soar. 

O kind Apollo, aid this labor last, 

And me so worthy make of thy great aims 
As should be one who thine own laurel claims! 

One summit of Parnassus I have passed, 

Its steeps and fountains all I have toiled through, 
But here I challenge all the towers of two. 


Pervade my bosom, thou, and therein breathe — 19 
As at the time when thou didst Marsyas draw 
Unsheathed front limbs which held thee not in 

awe. 

O power divine, with thyself me enwreathe, 

So that of that blest realm the shadowy trace 
Wrought in my brain my pages fair may grace ; 

And thou me shalt unto thy favorite tree 
See come, and with those leaves me form a crown, 
And worthily treat the theme and thy renown. 


So seldom, Father, is it that we see 28 

Cezesar’s or Poet’s triumph seek thy leaves 

(So much of fault spoils plans ambition weaves), — 
That if may thirst some one of fitting fame 

For foliage thine Peneian, then delight 

Would glad the Delphian deity’s joyous might. 
A little spark doth grow into a flame: 

Perchance shall better voices, following mine, 

Responses gain from Cyrrha’s domes divine. 








168 Paradiso. 
The Smile of Beatrice. 
To mortals rises from points widely ranged 37 
The world’s great lamp; but by that one where 
find 


Four circles crosses three with them combined, 
"Neath favorable stars not easily to be changed, 

Conjoined it issues, and in happier heaven 

To wax mundane the stamp that moulds it’s given. 
Almost that point, there morning, edicts wise 

Had made, and evening here, and there was white, 

That hemisphere’s day, and here was black, our 

night, 


When Beatrice saw I, changed somewhat in guise, 46 
Turned to the left, and gazing at the sun; 
So strong a gaze was ne’er by eagle won. 

And, as a second ray is wont to rise 
From that which first was forward sent, as yearn 
The hearts of pilgrims for long-hoped return, 

Thus did my fancy, wrought on through mine eyes, 
Make mine her act, and t’wards the sun I gazed 
So fixedly that here ’t would me have dazed. 


There-much allowed is which is here denied 55 
Unto our powers; such laws control the place 
Made for the dwelling of the human race. 

Short while I bore it, but with it did bide 
Until I bickering spurts of flame saw flash 
Like molten iron whereof the runlets splash. 

And seemed it suddenly as if he who deals 
With nature’s forces had another sun 
Enthroned, and that the two were joined in one. 





Canto I. 169 





Glaucus. 





And Beatrice still on the eternal wheels 64 
Stood gazing, and (while seemed no jar or stir), 
Changing my vision from above to her, 

I, by her countenance, inwardly became ~ 
As Glaucus, when the herb he tasted peer 
Made him of all the Gods beneath the mere. 

The event occurred, no man can give it name; 
Transhuman ’t was; so let the example serve 
Those for whom Grace the proof holds in reserve. 

-_ 
If, Love, who dost the Heavens’ thrones rule, I 
were _ 73 
What of me thou but newly didst create, 
Thou knowest, whose light did lift to heights so 
great ! 

And when the wheel ’neath thine eternal care, 
Spirit desired! thrilled, charmed, delighted me, 
With harmonies measured and attuned by thee, 

Then such wide space in heaven enkindled seemed 
By flame the sun sent that nor flood nor raih 

E’er made a lake that did such breadth attain. 


The novelty of the sound, the light that beamed, 8: 
To know their cause such longing in me wrought 
As ne'er before had reached my raptured thought ; 

Whence she who saw me as myself I saw 
To calm my mind perturbed, before I spoke, 
Her lips just opening, thus our silence broke : 

“°T is false imaginings vain aside doth draw 
Thy mind, which keener to observe would be 
If from its clog thyself thou couldst make free. 


170 Paradiso. 





The Sea of Being. 





“Thou deemest falsely thyself yet on earth; 9 
But hurrying levin from its mystic urn 
Ne’er ran as thou hast hitherward made return.” 
If now my former doubt had lost its worth 
By these brief words less spoken forth than 
smiled, 
I by a new one was the more beguiled ; 
And said: ‘Scarce had I rested from surprise 
Content, when now again I feel amaze 
At what doth me ’bove those light bodies raise.” 


A pitying sigh she suffered to arise, 100 
Then, t’wards me turning that expression mild 
A mother casts on a delirious child, 

She said: “ Existent things, whate’er they be, 
Have order : hence ’t is, form is on things placed, 
And thus the universe like to God is graced. 

And higher creatures here the footprints see 
Of that Eternal Power which is the end 
Whereto the law I spoke of doth extend. 


“Tn this their order do all natures wend, 109 
By diverse destinies prompted to digress, 
Unto their origin near, some more, some less. 
Hence unto ports.diverse they onward bend 
The sea of being vast upon, while own 
An instinct each whereby their sails are blown. 
This bears towards the moon the fire ; the power 
That moves and wills, this is, in mortal hearts ; 
This binds the globe and all its several parts. 





r 
; 
‘ 
3 
; 
; 
j 
| 
5 
; 
: 
: 


Canto I. | 171 





The Will free. 





“ And not alone created things that are 118 
Of mind devoid leave, clanging shafts, this bow, 
But those as well whom love and intellect know. 

But Providence wise, who all this doth control, 
Makes calm with His own light the highest 

Heaven, 
Next which is that whereto speed greatest’s given. 

And thither now, to seats that seeks the soul, 
Borne on are we by that cord’s virtue strong 
Whose arrows e’er for joyous aimings long. 


“ Vet true is it that as oft-times the form 127 
Accords not with art’s well-contrived design, 
But lags dull matter deaf to the divine, 

So deviate doth the creature from this norm, 
Because, though thus impelled, with power to 

swerve 
Invested ’t is, and its free will to serve 

(In the same way as we the fire may see 
From clouds fall down), if the first impetus right 
Is t’ward earth turned by some fond false delight. 


“Thou shouldst not wonder more, seems it to me, 136 
At thine ascending, than from some high peak 
To see a rivulet’s wave the valley seek. 

*T would in thee wondrous be, if, hindrance given 
Thee none, thou shouldst be seated there below, 
As if earth sent from living fires no glow.” 

Thereat again her face she turned t’wards heaven. 


172 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





NOTES TO THE FIRST CANTO. 


2. “ The universe.” Of Dante’s universe we have already 
in part had the plan. Satan fell from heaven, and in his fall 
displaced a mass of earth, leaving a cavity, the earth displaced 
rising in the South Pacific in the form of a mountain, the 
Mountain of Purgatory, the antipodes of Jerusalem. The 
souls destined for perdition are borne to the court of: Minos, 
judge of the damned, who assigns to them their several circles. 
The souls destined for heaven take passage, at the mouths of 
the Tiber, for the Purgatorial Mountain, whence, in due time, 


they ascend, like Dante, to heaven. Heaven is a place of ten 


spheres, each a several heaven, the Empyrean being free to all 
the blest. ‘The earth is the centre of Dante’s celestial system ; 
and, following the Convito, ii. 4, “The first heaven is that 
where the Moon is; the second is that where Mercury is ; 
the third is that where Venus is; the fourth is that where 
the Sun is; the fifth is that where Mars is; the sixth is that 
where Jupiter is; the seventh is that where Saturn is; the 
eighth is that of the stars.” The ninth, he proceeds to ex- 
plain, is the Primum Mobile, the seat of primal motion, and 
the tenth, the Empyrean, the quiet and peaceful abode of God 
himself. The longing desire of the Primum Mobile to be 
united with the Empyrean of rest causes the Primum Mobile 
to revolve around it with a velocity which is almost incom- 
prehensible. 

The celestial creations which control the several Heavens ; 
the inhabitants of the several Heavens; and that principle to 
which each is in an especial manner sacred, are classified as 
follows : 

1. The Heaven of the Moon is controlled by the Angels, 
is inhabited by the unfortunate religious, and is, in an especial 
manner, sacred to the struggling will of man. 

2. The Heaven of Mercury is controlled by the Archangels, 
is inhabited by those who have acquired fame, and is, in an 
especial manner, sacred to the ambitious will of man. 





Canto I. 173 





Notes. 





3. The Heaven of Venus is controlled by the Principalities, 
is inhabited by those who have been lovers, and is, in an 
especial manner, sacred to the affectionate will of man. 

4. The Heaven of the Sun is controlled by the Powers, is 
inhabited by the Doctors of the Church, and is, in an especial 
manner, sacred to Light. 

5. The Heaven of Mars is controlled by the Virtues, is in- 
habited by the Martyrs, and is, in an especial manner, sacred 
to Faith. 

6. The Heaven of Jupiter is controlled by the Dominions, 
is inhabited by just Rulers, and is, in an especial manner, 
sacred to Justice. 

7. The Heaven of Saturn is controlled by the Thrones, is 
inhabited by holy Hermits, and is, in an especial manner, 
sacred to Asceticism. ; 

8. The Heaven of the Fixed Stars is controlled by the 
Cherubim, is inhabited by the Saints, and is, in an especial 
manner, sacred to Triumph. 

9. The Heaven of the Primum Mobile is controlled by the 
Seraphim, is inhabited by the Moral Philosophers, and is, in 
an especial manner, sacred to Philosophy. 

10. The Empyrean is controlled by the Supreme Wisdom, 
is inhabited by the Divine Presence, and is, in an a hi 
manner, sacred to Deity. 

“ There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but 
the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial 
is another. 

“There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the 
moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth 
from another star in glory.” 1 Corinthians xv. 40, 41. 

The order followed in the Commedia is adopted from the 
works of Dionysius the Areopagite. Dante, in his Convito, 
ii. 16, says that the spheres below the Empyrean are called 
Hierarchies; and that their number, nine, is divided into 
groups of three each. The grouping of the celestial creations 
controlling them, however, as given in the Convito, is different 
from that given in the Commedia, and is as follows: 


174 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





1. Angels; 2. Archangels ; 3. Thrones. 
4. Dominions; 5. Virtues; 6. Principalities. 
7. Powers; 8. Cherubim; 9. Seraphim. 


Saint Thomas of Aquin, in his Summa Theologica, Question . 


1. to Ixiv., and Question cvi. to cxiv., treats largely of the 
celestial system. 

It is one of the doctrines of Plato that the Soul of the 
World has no determinate place, but that it is everywhere 
diffused, and that the Heavens constantly seek it with vehe- 
ment motion. The Christian system places the Soul of the 
World in the Empyrean, and attributes the motion of the 
spheres to their vehement desire to be united thereto. 

3. “Light.” Dante here probably alludes to the peculiarity 
of the atmospheres of the Moon, and Mercury, and Venus, 
arising from the supposition that they are within the earth’s 
shadow (Canto ix., line 118), and therefore enjoy less light 
than the planets beyond them; a supposition based on the 
Ptolemaic theory; but even on this theory they can only be 
‘by occultation within its shadow. 

5. “ Hath most of light.” The Empyrean, the immediate 
presence of God. ; 

9. “ Memory halts.’ “Tt is not expedient for me doubt- 
less to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the 
Lord. 

“I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago 
(whether in the body I cannot tell; or whether out of the 
body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up 
to the third heaven. 

“ And I knew such a man, (whether in the body or out of 
the body I cannot tell ; God knoweth ;) 

“ How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard un- 
speakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. 

“Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not 
glory, but in mine infirmities.” 2 Corinthians xii. 1-5. 

18. “ The towers of two.” That is: This task seems twice 
as difficult as to describe the Lower World and the Purga- 
torial Mountain. 








ee 


Canto I. 175 





Notes. 





20, “ Marsyas.” A satyr, or peasant, of Phrygia. Itis related 
that Minerva, playing on a flute, on the borders of a stream, 
observed, reflected in the water, the distortion of her features, 
and, in disgust, threw the flute away. It was picked up by 
Marsyas. The breath of the Goddess still lingered in it, and, 
as Marsyas blew, it emitted divine strains. Elated, he chal- 
lenged Apollo to a contest of minstrelsy. And Apollo, with 
his lyre alone, was helpless; he only triumphed by adding 
the music of his voice. The terms of the contest were that 
the defeated one should submit to whatever the pleasure of 
the victor might dictate, and it was the pleasure of Apollo to 
flay his adversary alive. 

29. “ C@sar.” In the vision of Anchises : 


** Behold him now, who with rich Corinth’s spoils, 
Up to the lofty Capitol’s heights his car 
Will drive in triumph as a conqueror crowned.” 


On the shield of Aineas : 


** But Cesar, borne the Roman walls within, 
Midst all the glories which these triumphs gave, 
Was unto Gods Italian rendering thanks, 

And vows performing on three hundred shrines. 
These through the City testified its joy. 

But joy shone everywhere, in games, in cheers, 
In raging storms of cheers, which boiled where’er 
The conqueror’s chariot bore his form caressed. 
In every temple Roman mothers sung ; 

At every altar Roman mothers stood ; 

At every shrine slain bullocks strewed the earth. 
Himself on Phoebus’ snowy threshold sat, 

And there received of conquered peoples’ wealth 
The costly gifts, and them in order placed 
Against the pillared temples gates superb. 

Pass on, in order long, the conquered tribes, 

In dress and arms as various as in tongues.” 


29. “ Poet.” Byron says of Dante: 
** To him the lyre and laurels have been given, 
And all the trophies of triumphant song.’’ 
32. “ Peneian.” ‘The Penais was a crystal river in Thessaly, 
flowing through the charming Vale of Tempe, at the foot of 


176 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





Mount Olympus. The Vale of Tempe was a favorite haunt 
of Apollo, and it was with laurel gathered therein that the 
victors in the Pythian games were crowned. Virgil could not 
forget the beauty of this valley and its limpid river. See the 
Fourth Georgic, at lines 317 and 355: 


“The consecrated source, 
Whence flows the river all its wandering way,” 


and Aristzeus on its banks lamenting the loss of his bees. 

36. “ Cyrrha.” <A town at the foot of Parnassus, dedicated 
to Apollo. 

39, 43.” Four circles crosses three... almost that point.” 
Dante describes, through scientific allusions, that point on 
the line of the equator where the sun crosses the line, at the 
time of the vernal equinox. The assumed date of his allusion 
is Easter Wednesday, the 31st day of March, 1300, ten days 
after the time of the equinox. The four circles are: 1. That 
of the sun; 2. That of the sun’s path, the ecliptic; 3. That 
of the equator; 4. That of the zodiac. This conjunction is 
“favorable,” it begins a “happier heaven,” and heralds the 
season of Spring. The conjunction suggests a series of arm- 
lets or bracelets, and its resemblance to them is recognized 
in the naming of the armillary sphere. A diagram will easily 
show the four bracelets forming the three crosses : 











Canto I. I 77 





Notes. > 





42. “ Wax... stamp.” With Dante a favorite figure. 

44. “ Here.” In Italy. That is, morning was accomplished. 
It was, with Dante, mid-day. See Purgatorio, xxxiii. 104. It 
may be noted that both Mr. Cary and King John of Saxony 
mistake the time: they both make it the moment of sunrise. 

47. “ To the left.” The sun was at the meridian of noon. 
The place of Dante and Beatrice was still on the Purgatorial 
Mountain. The sun was therefore to the north; and if Bea- 


- trice turned towards her left to look at it, she must have been 


looking towards the east. Indeed, it may be supposed that 
this is only an adroit way, on the part of Dante, of saying 
that Beatrice, the impersonation of Divine Wisdom, had been 
contemplating the East, the source of light and knowledge. 
49. “Second ray.” The ray of reflection springing from 
that of incidence, like the yearning of a pilgrim to return from 
his pilgrimage. So Dante’s wandering gaze came back, as to 


_ its home, to follow the direction of the eyes of his beloved 


Beatrice. 

68. “As Glaucus.” A fisherman of the Beeotian coast, he 
ate of the divine herb planted by Saturn, and became a God. 
So Dante, tasting, with his eyes, of the divine countenance 
of Beatrice, became divine. 

74. “ But newly didst create.” The doctrine of Plato was 
that all souls were created at once, and afterwards the bodies 
of men were created, and invested with soul. The phrase 
used by Dante means therefore Jody, and is a reference to the 
saying of Saint Paul already quoted from Second Corinthians : 
“ Whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell.” 
The doctrine of Plato, although supported by Origen, is 
denied by Saint Thomas of Aquin, Summa, i. 118, 3. He 
maintains that “creation and infusion are simultaneous in 
regard to the soul.” Dante, in the Twenty-fifth Canto of the. 
Purgatorio, line 70, maintains the opinion of Saint Thomas. 

78. “ Harmonies... attuned.” Rixner, Handbuch der 
Geschichte der Philosophie, i. 100, speaking of the Ten Heav- 
ens, otherwise called Zhe Lyre of Pythagoras, says: “ These 
ten celestial spheres are arranged among themselves in an 





178 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





order so mathematical and musical, that is, so harmonious, 
that the sphere of the Fixed Stars, which is above the sphere 
of Saturn, gives forth the deepest tone in the music of the 
universe (the World-Lyre with ten strings), and that of the 
Moon the highest.” 

It is observable that Cicero, in his Vision of Scipio, attrib- 
utes the deepest tones to the Moon, the highest to the spheres 
more remote. 


** Look, how the floor of heaven 
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold; 
There ’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st, 
But in his motion like an Angel sings, 
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim: 
Such harmony is in immortal souls; 
But while this muddy vesture of decay 
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.” 
SHAKESPEARE, Merchant of Venice, v. 1. 


93. “ Made return.” Sought again, with the instinct of the” 
creature, the abode of the Creator. 

103, 104, 105. “‘ ot in the largeness...a ray resplendent.” 
That is: “The image, although smaller, will be none the less 
resplendent.” As Butler well phrases it: “ The intrinsic qual- 
ity of light is not affected by distance.” 

114. “ Az instinct.” The innate desire of the spirit to re- 
gain its origin in the skies, of the creature to be reunited to 
the Creator, of that which is sent forth to regain the source 
whence it is sent. In the next Canto (line 19) Dante will 
describe it as 


‘¢ That concreate thirst perpetual with its spur,” 
and in line 40, as the burning desire 
“* Which us ne’er leaves.” 


115. “ Fire.” To repeat from Latini ( 77é¢sor, ch. cviii.) what 
is given in a former note : 

“ After the zone of air is placed the fourth element. This 
is an orb of fire without any moisture, which extends as far 


Canto I. 179 





Notes. 








as the Moon, and surrounds this atmosphere in which we are, 
And know that above the fire is, first, the Moon and the other 
stars, which are all of the nature of fire.” 

122. “ The highest .. . speed greatest.” The highest is the 
Empyrean ; that of greatest speed is the Primum Mobile. 





CANTO SECOND. 
- ARGUMENT: 


Dante and Beatrice find themselves borne with incredible 
swiftness to the Moon, the first of the ten Heavens. The 
Heaven of the Moon is under the control of the Angels, 
and is inhabited by those members of the religious orders 
who have broken their vows under compulsion. Beatrice 
discourses upon the Moon and the other heavenly orbs 
and the seat of Primal Motion and the Empyrean, and their 
relations to each other, and upon the effects of light. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Dante. Beatrice. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Angels. The spirits of the 
unfortunate religious. 


Do ye, who, in some dainty little craft, 
Have followed, eager to pursue, the notes 
My ship gives forth, which musically floats, 

Let now kind winds or oars ye backward waft ; 
Beware the,open sea, where me to lose 
Might, with your own loss, end your venturous 

cruise. 

A sea I sail where keel hath never sped ; 
Minerva’s breath, Apollo’s pilotage, cares 
The Muses give, me herald t’wards the Bears. 


ee ee 








Canto IT. 181 


The Sphere of the Moon. 








And ye, the others, few ye, but who bread 10 
Of Angels lift the neck towards, and live 
On the sole food satiety doth not give, 

Let lead upon the deep salt sea your band 
Its vessels stanch, my trailing wake your guide | 
That o’er the vast sends dimpling wavelets wide. 

Those glorious chiefs who drove on Colchos’ strand 
Not wonder felt such as’waits ye, when plowed 
The land they saw by Jason labor-vowed ! 


That concreate thirst perpetual with its spur 19 
T’wards God-resembling realms bore us on high 
Swiftly almost as sweeps your glance the sky. 

Gazed Beatrice upward, and gazed I on her, 

And in such time as strikes an arrow, sent 
Forth from the notch, while thrills the bow 
that ’s bent, 

Arrived myself I saw where filled my sight 
A thing of wonder great, and therefore she 
From whom no single care of mine could flee, 


Turned t’wards me all her gladsome beauty bright, 28 
And said: ‘Now be by thee God gratefully 
sought, 
He who hath us unto the first star brought.” 
It seemed to me a cloud did round us furl 
Its luminous, dense, consolidate, polished folds, 
As sunlight’s sheen the imprisoned diamond 
holds. 
Into itself us took the eternal pearl 
As doth the limpid wave the unbroken beam 
Of light receive that to its depths doth gleam. 


182 Paradiso. 





Its peculiar Atmosphere. 





If I was body (and none here conceives 37 
Dimension how dimension tolerates, shown 
When bodies two the same place claim and own) 

More the desire should burn which us ne’er leaves, 
To see that essence where by dullards e’en 
God and our nature are united seen. 

Heaven will reveal what faith declares, not shown 
By proof, but evident of itself, as shine 
To man’s belief the primal truths divine. 


And then I answered: “Lady, I do own 46 

My gratitude, ’t is in utmost measure given 

To Him who lifts me from the world to Heaven. 
But tell me what may be the dusky spots 

Upon that orb, which there below on earth 

To fables quaint of Cain have given birth?” 
Smiled she somewhat; then, “If to solve these 

knots 
The minds of mortals fail, whene’er of sense 
The key unlocks not where it makes pretence, 


“Sure, should not thee the shafts of wonder sting, 55 
Since, as thou seest, the senses’ feeble flight 
Calls reason forth on wings of little might. 

But speak thyself, what solvent dost thou bring?” 
And I: “ The light, I think, ’t is which doth fare 
Through mediums diverse, dense or rare.” 

And she: ‘“ Most surely wilt thou see immersed 
In error thy belief, if that thou grace 
The arguments clear wherewith I will it face. 


he 
tiie Lar 


P ~ 
—ele Te a ee ee ee ee ee eee 





a a 


ant 


Canto I. ~* 383 





Instructions of Beatrice. 





“Lights many fromthe eighth sphere on us burst 64 
Whose kind and size each makes of different 
hue ’ 
As shine they ‘fore the amazed observers’ view. 
Were this to rarity, now, or denseness due, 
One single virtue would there be in all, 
With influence equal, or more great, or small. 
Perforce the fruits of formal principles true 
The diverse virtues are ; and these, save one, 
Neglects thy reasoning, which the rest doth shun. 


“ Besides, if rarity were of this dimness cause, 73 
Throughout its substance all were this orb rare, 
And spots would not obscure its body fair, 

Or else, as would a body following laws 
Apportioning fat and lean, so would the range 
Of leaves throughout its volume interchange. 

The first, were ’t true, would easily be made clear 
Whene’er the sun’s eclipsed, by light across 
The orb’s disc sent without especial loss. 


“ The fact ’s not so; then look the other near, 8 
And if it, too, I prove not well-based, fall 
Both sides of your opinion baseless all. 

Now if this rarity not all parts pervades 
There must a limit be where ’s found the dense, 
Which now the rarity’s further spread prevents, 

The dense sends back the radiance which invades 
Its surface from abroad, e’en as glass sends 
Reflection forth when with its back lead blends. 


184 Paradiso. 





As to the Heavens. 





“Now wilt thou say that this accounts for hues 91 
Diverse as more or less remote are found 
The surfaces whence the light hath its rebound, 
Of this, experiment will thee disabuse, 
If trial thereof thou make, whence start 
Founts which to rivers grow in every art. 
Three mirrors take thou, and at distance slight 
Place two before thee, and the third between 
The other two, but more remotely seen. 


“ Towards these turned, let back of thee a light 100 
Be placed, illuming thus the mirrors three, 
And from them by reflection sent to thee. 
Although not in the largeness of its form 
The image more remote excel, a ray 
Resplendent as the others ’t will display. 
But now, as, neath the touch of sunbeams warm, 
The snow-clad ground its hue and coldness 
yields, 
And shows the sod of summer-seeking fields, 


** So thus warmed, cleared and cheered in mind of 
thine, 109 

Thee will I teach with rays of light so clear 
That they will thrill thee as they touch thee near. 

The Heaven within of the repose divine 
Revolves that space whose virtue life doth give 
To all the Heavens that in its circling live. 

Next comes the Heaven filled full with many a star ; 
Diverse ’t is by its essences own maintained 
Yet next unto that primal virtue ranged. 





Canto IT. 185 


The Seal of God. 








“ The other Heavens, at measured distances far, 18 
Effects and purposes have to which adapt 
Themselves distinctions growing from reasons apt. 

Thus do these organs of the world march on, 

As thou perceivest now, grade following grade, 
While is to higher command obedience paid. 

See now how hereby thou art so well drawn 
Unto the truth thou seek’st, that thou may’st wade 
Thyself the ford thou reachest through this glade. 


“The power and motion of the sacred spheres, 127 
As from the workman power his hammer wields, 
Forth from blest motors circle through those 

fields. 

These Heavens, whose spread of light so great ap- 

pears, | 
Take from the Wisdom deep that moves them trace 
As of a seal impressed in proper place, 

And, even as within your dust, the soul, 

Through members diverse formed on needful 
plans, 
To faculties several, circulates and expands, 


“So doth this Wisdom through great orbits roll, 136 
And it the stars in their own elements solve, 
While it on its own unity doth revolve. 

This Wisdom thus, in diverse ways, alloy 
Makes with each precious orb, as flows 
The life in you, where from your body grows. 

Derived its quickening from the seat of Joy, 

The mingled virtue through these orbs doth fly, 
E’en as glad glances beam in mortal eye. 


186 Paradiso. 


The Light of God. 








“ From this results, that ’t is twixt light and light 14s 
The difference is, and not ’twixt dense and rare: 
The forming principle this is, whence doth fare, 

In grades of goodness, what seems dark or bright.” 


NOTES TO THE SECOND CANTO. 


16. “ Those glorious chiefs.” Jason succeeded in plowing 
the land with the fire-breathing bulls of King Aétes, only by 
the secret aid of the king’s daughter Medea, an enchantress, 
enamored of Jason. We may imagine the king saying to 
Jason, as Samson did to the Philistines: “If ye had not 
plowed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle.” 

Premising that “Tiphys” was the pilot of the Argonautic 
expedition, we may note the opinion of the Cumzan Sibyl, 
if not of Virgil, that military expeditions and wars will con- 
tinue to be made: 


* Another Tiphys there shall be ; and borne 
Another Argo’s ribs within, the swords” 
Of other heroes famed like those of old, 
The flower of all the lands from whence they come ; 
And other wars; and to another Troy 
The great Achilles shall again be sent.” 
Pollio, 35. — 


22. “ And gazed I on her.’ Again, like Glaucus, become a 
God through tasting the seaweed, Dante becomes exalted to 
the skies by tasting with his eyes the divine countenance of 
Beatrice. 

30. “ The first star.” The Moon. 

37. “Lf I was body.” Dante expresses, in this way, the 
amazed condition of his mind. He was not sure whether he 
was body or spirit. If body, however, celestial laws ad- 
mitted his being incorporated with “ the eternal pearl,” as 
the “ unbroken wave of light” is incorporated with the “ limpid 
wave.” 

42. “God and our nature are united seen.’ The Incarna- 
tion. 








Canto IT. 187 





Notes. 





si. “ Zo fables quaint of Cain.” Cain with his bush of 
thorns. This fable we have seen referred to in the close of 
the Twentieth Canto of the Inferno. : 

52. “ Smiled she somewhat.” Thesmile of Beatrice is one 
of the delights of the Paradiso. Dante will leave no beauty 
of language unemployed in describing this divine smile. In 
his Convito, iii. 15, he says that demonstration resides in the 
eyes of Wisdom, and that persuasion resides in her smile. 

59. “ Zhe light.” Dante’s explanation, briefly stated, seems 
to be that the spots on the Moon are not the effects of den- 
sity, but of light as peculiarly affecting that orb. This pas- 
sage some critics have pronounced tedious. It has been, 
however, imitated by Milton. 

64. “ Lights many.” The Heaven of the Fixed Stars. 

96. “Experiment.” The principle of induction recom- 
mended by Aristotle and Bacon, and examined by Mill. 

112. “ Zhe Heaven of the Repose Divine.’ The Empyrean. 

113. “ That space.” The Primum Mobile. 

115. “ Many a star’ The sphere of the Fixed Stars. 

121. “ March on.” Note that the Heavens are describable 
as well from above (the Empyrean) as from below (the 
Earth). Motion originates from above. God in rest ordains 
motion; the First Motor (Primum Mobile) gives motion 
to all the inferior Heavens down to the Earth. 

143. “ The mingled virtue.” 


“ The heaven, at first, and earth, and watery fields, 
The moon’s bright globe, and the Titanian stars, 
An inward Spirit feeds, and, poured throughout 
All parts and particles, there doth exist 
A Mind intelligent which moves the mass, 
And mingles with the body vast of things.” 
Anchises to Aineas, Sixth Aineid, 724. 


CANTO THIRD. 


ARGUMENT: 


With one of the spirits of the unfortunate religious, Piccarda, 
Dante’s sister-in-law, he converses. She relates to him her 
experience in both states of existence, and points out to him 
Constance, mother of the Emperor Frederick the Second, 
and recalls the history of that lady. 

Still the Heaven of the Moon. 


‘ PERSONS SPEAKING: Dante. Beatrice. Piccarda. 


PERSONS APPEARING: Angels. Constance, and other mem- 
bers of religious orders. 


TuatT Sun, which erst with love my bosom warmed, 
Of beauteous truth the sweet face had unveiled 
Through proof of all, and reproof where I failed; 

And, that I might my judgments own reformed, 
With confidence strong, and yet with gratitude 

meek, 
My head I raised in attitude now to speak. 

But there a vision came which me withdrew, 

And so close held, in its deep interest caught, 
That of my purpose I no longer thought. 





ee ee 


Canto ITI. 189 





Smile of Beatrice. 





As clear and polished glass when we see through, 10 
Or crystalline floods by no commotion tost, 
But not within dark, pebbleless, bottoms lost, 
And come to us our faces’ outlines weak, 
As weak as would a pearl’s, on forehead white, 
Claiming acknowledgment from the puzzled 
sight ; 
Such saw I many faces prompt to speak, 
So that mine error opposite his did mount 
Who love conceived as looked he in the fount. 


Soon as of them aware, them deeming sent 19” 
Reflections forth from mirrored surfaces, turned 
I round mine eyes, where might the truth be 

learned, 

But nothing saw, and now their gaze I bent 
On my sweet Guide, and on her very eyes, 
Wherein her gracious smiles began to rise. 

** Marvel thou not because I smile,” she said, 

“ At this thy childish judgment, since not yet 
‘Upon the truth its trusting foot is set, 


“ But by it thou t’wards vacancy still art led. 28 
True substances all are these by thee observed, 
Exiles because from holy vows they ’ve swerved. 

But speak thou with them, they the truth will tell, 
For that true light which bringeth to them peace 
Is guaranty fair their truth will never cease.” 

And so, with haste embarrassed, it befel 
That I my speech directed to that shade 
Which earnestness most for converse had \dis- 

played : 


190 Paradiso. 





Piccarda. 





“OQ Spirit born for bliss, who in the rays 37 
Of life eternal dost that sweetness own 
Which, being untasted, never can be known, 
*T will me make glad if from thy mouth of praise 
I hear thy name and thy companions’ state.” 
Whence promptly she, with laughing eyes elate: 
‘“‘Ne’er doth our Charity high the portals close 
A just demand against, and she desires 
That like herself should be her heavenly choirs. 


“A virgin sister’s lot it was I chose; 46 
And, nearly scanned, my features will reveal, 


What new charms me from thee will not conceal, 


That I Piccarda am, who ’mongst the blest 
Who live with God, or distant or more near, 
Enjoy beatitude in the tardiest sphere. 

The affections of us all burn on with zest, 
Drawn from our pleasure in the Holy Ghost, | 
And jubilant that his order is our boast. 


“‘ And this our station, which doth humble seem, ss 
Is to us given because that, brought to nought 
Our vows have been in ways not by us sought.” 

“There seems of the miraculous a gleam,” 

I said, “in all your visages seen divine, 
Which makes them past quick recognition shine. 

Therefore was I in my remembrance slow; 

But what thou now dost tell me of your state, 
Bids memory act without delay so great. 








ee ee — 





Pe NS ee ee 





Canto LTT, IQI 





Worship, not Envy. 





fee 


‘But tell me, ye who happiness here do know, 64 
Are ye desirous of yet*loftier planes ? 
Seek ye variety more? Or friendship’s gains?” 
First, with those other shades, she gently smiled ; 
Then words so full of joy me made return 
That in love’s primal glow she seemed to burn : 
“ Ah, Brother ! Charity leads us unbeguiled 
By our own wishes; what we have we enjoy, 
nn not envy, doth our minds employ. 


* If we should seek to rise to loftier grace, 73 
Our aspirations would unlovingly meet 
The will of Him whom here our love should greet. 
Such mood, thou ’lt find, in these planes hath no 
place, 
If Heaven’s a place where Charity should abide, 
And if, as thou ‘It confess, it masters pride. 
Nay, here we would not live one moment blest, 
Unless united with the will divine, 
Wherewith in one our wishes should combine. 


—_ 


“So that, as rise the several ranks of rest, 82 
Plane following plane, the realm with pleasur 
fills . 


King, subjects, all, and his will rules our wills, 
And is our peace; this is the-embracing mere 
To which moves onward constantly whatsoe’er 
It doth create and place in nature’s care.” 
Then that all Heaven was Paradise was full clear, 
Although the grace the Good Supreme doth rain 
In several measure seeks each several plane. 


192 Paradiso. 





The violated Cloister. 





But, as in eating, if one dish doth sate, ‘ gt 
And for another still we appetite feel, 
Declining that, on this we close our meal, 
F’en thus did I in this our kind debate ; 
And questioned I because I not yet knew 
What web was that the shuttle went not through. 
And she: “A lady o’er us, high in heaven, keep 
Her perfect life and merit; vest and veil 
Her rule in your world order, that may fail 


“ Ne’er until death their vigilance, and that sleep 100 
They may beside that Spouse whom vows delight 
Which Charity blesses in its blissful height. 

In youth, to follow her the world I fled, 

And, in her habit and her cause retained, 
I vowed to tread the path her rule ordained. 

Then men whom seldom good, oft evil, led, 

From that sweet cloister tore me; God doth 
know 
In what sad course my life from thence did flow. 


“This other splendid shape upon my right, 109 
And which glows forth with all the lustre clear 
That doth belong to this our special sphere, 

Like me was overpowered by lawless might. 

From her, a sister, was the wimple torn, 
By her with fond and close devotion worn. 

And when to her the world again laid claim 
Her wishes ’gainst, and ’gainst good usage, ne’er 
Did ruthless they from her the heart’s veil tear. 








Canto IIT. 193 


Costanza. 








“’T is great Costanza’s radiance so doth flame, 1 
Who from the second blast of Suabia birth 

Gave to her third and latest name of worth.” 
Her speech was ended, and her voice began 

“ Ave Maria” singing, but the sound 

Vanished with her as weight in waves profound. 
My sight, that after her as long time ran 

As possible, when her it lost, turned round 

Where it a mark of more attraction found, 


And once again to Beatrice came, but flashed 127 
Such levins she into mine eyes that bear 
Could not at first my sight the blinding glare, 
And this in questioning made me more abashed. 


NOTES TO THE THIRD CANTO. 


I, 3. “ That Sun... proof and reproof.’ Beatrice, once the 
inspiration of human love, now the symbol of Divine Truth. 
“ Proof and reproof” is Dantean: “ Provando e riprovando.” 

17. “ The fount.” Narcissus unhappily mistook a shadow 
for a substance; I, more fortunate, mistook a substance for a 
shadow. 

49. “ Piccarda.” WDante’s sister-in-law, sister of his wife 
Gemma Donati and of Forese Donati and Corso Donati. 
Forese says of her in the Twenty-fourth Canto of the 
Purgatorio, line 13: 

*‘ My sister, she so beautiful, so good! 
(I know not which the most) Olympus’ brow 
Sees, crowned with jubilant triumph, even now.” 

She was a nun of the order of Santa Clara. Her brother 
Donati compelled her marriage to Rosselin della Tosa. She © 
did not long survive this incident of a most villainous age. 

66. “ Variety ... or friendship.” See the next Canto, 


194 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





where Beatrice says that the highest plane, the Empyrean, 
is the common meeting-place of all the blest. Further on in 
the Poem, the Rose of the Blessed, in the Empyrean, will be 
described, wherein the denizens of all the Heavens will have 
appropriate seats. 

70. “ Brother.’ ‘The word is applicable in a double sense. 
Both human and divine relationships may be meant. Dante 
was, in law, Piccarda’s brother; he is, also, supposed to be a 
member of the Third Order of Saint Francis; and the nuns 
of Saint Clare were a branch of the Franciscan order. 

96. “A Lady ver us.” Santa Clara. 

118. “ Costanza.” Mother of the “third blast of Suabia,” 
Frederick the Second. Her husband, the “second blast of 
Suabia” was Henry the Fifth, son of Barbarossa. This lady 
was a member of a religious order, and her marriage a forced 
one. 


CANTO FOURTH. 


ARGUMENT: 


Beatrice discourses upon the ways of God in respect to the 
places of the several spirits, and of their merits in view of 
intention and uncontrollable circumstances. Dante pro- 
poses the question whether other good works may not be 
substituted in the scale of merit for those which have 
failed. 

Still the Heaven of the Moon. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Dante. Beatrice. 


PERSONS APPEARING: Angels. The spirits of the unfor- 
tunate religious. 


One willing freely, ’twixt two kinds of food 
Alike remote and tempting, would first die 
Of hunger’s pangs ere he could either try. 

So would a lamb, alike with fear imbued, | 
Of two fierce wolves their ravenings equally 

dread ; 

So ’twixt two does might be a dog’s life led. 

My doubts me held in such necessity then ; 
Wherefore I gave myself nor blame nor praise ; 
Nought could I do but there before me gaze. 


196 Paradiso. 


The Return of the Soul. 








I silent stood ; but who had held in ken 10 
My face, had keenness seen there which more 
prayed 


Than had words fervently their orisons made. 
As Daniel, when he Nebuchadnezzar led 

Aside from wrath, which made his merciless brow 

Injustice threaten, so looked Beatrice now. 
“Well I discern how thee attract,” she said, 

“Two several wishes which thy thought restrain, 

So that thy breath is thereby held in rein. 


“Thou arguest: ‘If remains the intent intact, 19 

Why should decrease my merit force 

Which in the minds of others hath its source ?’ 
Again with doubts thy thoughts are racked 

Because of that idea in Plato learned, 

That to the stars souls seemingly returned. 
These are the questions which assail thy will 

With equal buffetings fierce, and first of all 

I ’Il treat the one that hath the bitterest gall. 


“He of the Seraphim Deity most doth fill, 28 
Or Moses, Samuel, John (and which John choose) 
Or Mary who let here no reverence lose), 

None, have in any other Heaven their place 
Than have those souls which thou didst just now 

see, 
Nor ages fewer nor more in bliss to be, 

But a// the primal circle’s glory grace, 

And this sweet life partake, in diverse grades, 
As more or less God’s breath their souls pervades. 





Canto IV. 197 





Plato. 





“These shown were to thee not because this 
sphere 37 
Allotted is to them, but that the least 
Celestial height might give thine eyes a feast. 
Speech must be such as comes to evidence near, 
For grasp we always through the sense the 
thought 
Which to the intellectual smithy then is brought. 
For this cause ’t is the scripture condescends 
Unto man’s limited faculties, feet and hands 
To God attributing, and thus gloss demands ; 


“ And Holy Church an aspect human lends 46 
To Gabriel’s might and Michael’s, and his, too, 
Who Tobit’s power of vision did renew. 

What Plato teaches, from Timzeus drawn, 
Resemblance bears not to what here is seen; 
Their words import, perhaps, that which they 

mean. 

The soul, they say, unto its star is borne, 

Whence, their belief was, that it took its way 
When nature form gave to its infinite ray. 


“Perhaps their doctrine meant is us to learn 55 
More than the words import, and possibly runs 
To meanings that our just derision shuns. 

If mean they that unto these orbs return 
Honor or blame their influence earns them, then 
Some truth doth come within their arrows’ ken. 

This principle ill-understood once wrong 
The whole world nearly set, until the stars 
Men would invoke, as Mercury, Jove, and Mars. 


198 Paradiso. 





Lawrence. Sczvola. 





“The other doubt disturbs thee is less strong 64 
In venom ; its more mild malevolence ne’er 
Could thee and me to separate orbits bear. 

That in man’s eyes our justice should appear 
A thing unjust, doth on faith’s side contend, 
And countenance none doth unto heresy lend. 

But yet, that your perception may be clear 
Upon this point, I will thy wish content, 

And also on this verity’s theme comment. 


“Tf violence be, when he who suffers force, 73 
Consents not thereunto, not thence the abused 
Could justly make the claim that he’s excused; 

For, unopposed, will holds triumphant course, 

As nature doth in fire, howe’er it wrest 
A thousand times the force whereby ’t is pressed ; 

For if it yields or more or less, so far 
It follows force ; and these so did, though power 
Their shrines to regain gave many an opportune 

hour. 


‘Tn these had will been perfect, as when scar 
On scar burnt Lawrence, and when Sczvola’s 
hand 
Fed the fierce flames at his serene command, 
It would have urged them back the path to seek 
Whence force had drawn them, soon as liberty 
came ; 
But in too few doth such high principle flame. 
And by these words borne in thy memory meek 
That argument vain which thee might oft perplex 
Will nevermore thy pious ponderings vex. 


Canto IV. | 199 


Force and Will. 








“But now to thee seems yet a question blind, 
And such that by thyself the pathway straight 
To find might thee subject to weariness great. 

I have it firmly fixed within thy mind 
That ne’er can lie these souls, for near 
The primal Truth they hold their blest career. 

And then thou might’st have heard Piccarda say 
Costanza for the veil affection kept ; 

And ’twixt us here hath seeming discord crept. 


“Tf hath been, brother, oft the hated way 100 
That, peril to escape, men that have done 
Reluctantly which righteous men would shun ; 

E’en as Alcmzon, at his father’s prayer, 

Slew his own mother ; thus, to pious prove, 
He from his soul forth all of pity drove. 

At this point thou shouldst in thy memory bear 

That force with will’s so blended, that from 
thence 
Excuse cannot be pleaded for the offence. 


= Slap absolute with evil ne’er agrees, 109 


But in so far consents as its alarm 
Makes it, if it refrain, incur more harm. 
Hence when Piccarda words employs like these, 
Will absolute she means, while I intend 
The other ; thus doth in truth each pathway end.” 
And onward thus divine that river sped 
Which in the Source of all truth hath its spring, 
And thus each doubt fled forth on clattering wing. 


200 Paradiso, 





Truth’s bright Beam. 





“O the first Lover’s love, O Goddess,” thus I said, 118 
Enraptured, “thou whose speech bathes, warms 
me so, 
That more and more I gain of Wisdom’s glow, 
Affection deep enough I cannot claim 
As grace for grace to render ; may reply 
By One be made who sees and rules for aye! 
I find made clear that ne’er attains its aim 
Our intellect’s strength unless ‘neath Truth’s 
bright beam, 
Beyond which only erring arrows gleam. 


“Our mind in Truth rests as the beast untame 127 
In his remote, safe lair ; this absolute rest 
It can attain, else were defeat confessed. 
Doubts spring as shoots their lively leaves unfold 
Around thé trunk of Truth; and nature ’s made 
To make us climb from heightening grade to grade. 
This doth invite me, this doth make me bold, 
To ask you, Lady, one more doubt to solve 
Which seems in error’s darkness to revolve. 


“This would I know, if good deeds earn one 


praise 136 
To outweigh the vows which broken are, and 
heaven 


Accepts these if in compensation given.” 
From Beatrice came upon me now a gaze 

Full laden with love’s sparks, and so divine 

That turned I, so intensely did they shine, 
Vanquished and almost blinded with their rays. 


a 


Canto IV. 201 





Notes. 





NOTES TO THE FOURTH CANTO. 


2. “ Alike remote and tempting.’ A whimsical introduc- 
tion to a Canto which, as do several others, treats of the 
freedom of the will. The ideais one of great antiquity. It 
is found in Aristotle, De Cela, ii. 13. Ovid applies it to the 
case of a tiger in a valley between two lowing herds: 

“ Tigris ut, auditis, diversa valle duorum, 
Extimulata fame, mugitibus armentorum, 
Nescit utrd potius ruat, et ruere ardet utroque.” 
Met. v. 166. 
Saint Thomas of Aquin alludes to it in his Summa, ii. 1, 13, 
6. Since the time of Dante it is known to logicians as “ the 
dilemma of the ass of Buridan.” 

13. “ Daniel.’ Nebuchadnezzar was enraged against the 
wise men of Babylon, and threatened their extermination, 
because they could not make known to him a troubled 
dream, the details of which he had forgotten, and of which 
he demanded not only the details but the interpretation. 
Daniel, through a revelation of God, supplied both. The 
dream was, in substance, a revelation of the approach of the 
Christian era. Daniel, chap. ii. 

23, 49. “Plato... Timaus.” ‘Timzus was one of the 
preceptors of Plato. It is supposed, rather than known, that 
Timzus wrote the work entitled Of the Soul of the World 
and of Nature. 

The substance of Dante’s contention here is that Timzus 
and Plato, although right in saying that the soul originated 
in the celestial spheres, yet were wrong in averring that each 
soul has its several star ; they were right in maintaining that 
the soul returns to the skies, but wrong in maintaining that 
each individual soul returns to some separate and individual 
star. It seems interestingly observable that Dante here is 
at pains to admit his belief in general planetary influence : 

‘6 Tf mean they that unto these orbs return 


Honor or blame their zz/Zuence earns them, then 
Some truth doth come within their arrows’ ken.’? 


202 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





He is at pains, too, to admit that, possibly, the doctrines of 
these ancient philosophers as to the return of the soul to its 
source were, in substance, the same as those of the Christian: 
philosophers : 


“ Perhaps their doctrine meant is us to learn 
More than the words import.” 


28. “ He of the Seraphim Deity most doth fill.’ “Che piu s’ 
india,” that most in-God’s himself. The same form of ex- 
pression was met with in the preceding Canto, line 97: “ In- 
ciela,” z-Heaven ; and will be met with again in the Ninth 
Canto at line 73: “tuo veder s’ inluia,” thy sight zx-Hims 
itself, and at line 81: “s’ io m’ intuassicome tu t’ immii,” if 
I could zz-thee myself as thou dost in-me thyself; and in the 
Seventeenth Canto, line 13: “che sit’ insusi,” who dost so 
in-heights thyself; and in the Twenty-second Canto, line 
67: ‘‘l’ ultima spera non s’impola,” the last sphere, the Em- 
pyrean, does not impole itself, that is, has no poles, does not 
revolve as does the crystalline sphere, the sphere of Primal 
Motion, but is a quiet sphere, where God himself reposes. 

47. “ His.” Raphael’s. Tobit was a worthy Jew of the 
tribe of Naphtali, living in exile at Nineveh, who, in his en- 
forced home, enjoyed, at first, much prosperity, but after- 
wards became poor and blind. His son, Tobias, however, 
had the good fortune to make a journey with Raphael, “ one 
of the seven holy Angels who present the prayers of the 
saints, and who go in and out before the Holy One.” The 
Angel sent to the father, by the hands of the son, the gall of. 
a fish, the application of which to the blind man’s eyes re- 
stored his sight. 

54. “Form.” Saint Thomas of Aquin, Summa, i. 76, 1, 
says: “Form is that by which a thing is.” The thinking 
principle, intellect, or intellectual soul, is “the form of the 
body.” 

63. “Men would invoke.” Scartazzini’s suggestion is 
adopted: “to call «foxz.” But the interpretation, “to call,” 
or “name,” seems to have the authority of Saint Augustine, 











Canto IV. . 203 





Notes. % 





| De Civitate Dei, vii. 15: “De stellis quibusdam, quas pagani 
deorum suorum nominibus nuncupaverunt.” “ Of certain stars 
which the pagans ca//ed by the names of their Gods.” 

Plausible, too, seems the suggestion of King John of 
Saxony which makes the “nominar” (name) of the text 
“ numenar ” (to deify), so that the meaning, like Scartazzini’s, 
would be to worship certain stars as Gods. 

68. “ Ox faith’s side.” Cary explains: “That the ways of 
Divine Justice are often inscrutable to man, ought rather to 
be a motive to faith than an inducement to heresy.” 

83. “ Lawrence... Scevola.” Saint Lawrence suffered 
martyrdom in the reign of the Emperor Valerian, August 
10, 258. In his capacity of archdeacon he had charge of the 
treasury of the Church. Ordered by the Prefect of Rome 
(head of the police of the city) to surrender the supposed — 
millions as confiscated to the imperial treafury, he asked 
delay to prepare an inventory and appraisement. When the 
time arrived, the treasures which he displayed were a crowd 
of wretched people sick and poor. The disappointment 
enraged the officer, who ordered that the archdeacon be 
lashed to a frame of iron bars, and reduced to ashes by fire. 
His heroism was succeeded by numerous conversions. His 
relics are preserved, on the very spot where he expired, in 
the same sarcophagus with those of Saint Stephen the first 
martyr. 

Six hundred years before Christ, Mutius Sczeevola,a Roman 
knight, was one of three hundred conspirators who had 
vowed the death of Lars Porsenna the Tuscan king at war 
with Rome. Mistaking the identity of the king, he killed, 
instead, a member of his council. At once apprehended, he 
stood before the king. Coals, for the making of a religious 
sacrifice, were brought in on a brazier. Mutius placed his 
right hand upon the coals, and, while it burned, he presented 
to the king a countenance wholly unmoved. In admiration 
of such heroic fortitude the king handed him his sword, and 
bade him go free. His right hand being destroyed, he re- 
ceived his sword in his left, and is thence called Sczevola, 


206 Paradiso. 


The divine Plan. 








‘And to seduce your love should aught else seem, 10 
Nought is it but some ill-distinguished mark 
Of that same light, which spark emits on spark. 
Thy question is; if with good works for sin 
Of breaking vows, can such return be made 
That on the soul no burden will be laid.” 
Thus Beatrice did this Canto’s lines begin ; 
And as one who in speech proceeds, her voice 
Continued thus her strain of argument choice: 


“ The greatest gift that from the bounty e’er 19 
Of God creating came, and which doth rise 
Nearest His heights, and that which He doth 

prize 

Most highly, is that gift in largess fair 
Alone His intellectual creatures given, 

The freedom of the will, best boon of heaven. 

‘Now reason hence, and thou wilt see how high 
In worth a vow is, when God’s mind doth treat 
With yours to make it; His and yours here 

meet. 


“« And thus man doth, in God’s own sovereign eye, 28 
A sacrifice make of this prized treasure, crowned 
By its own act, and by God’s fiat bound. 

What compensation, then, can be returned ? 

Canst thou retain to use what’s not thine own ? 
Can theft do good? Canst thou reclaim thy loan? 

Now, on the greater point, thou truth hast learned : 
But Holy Church here dispensation makes ; 
And of apparent contradiction this partakes. 





Canto V. 207 


The Wills of God and Man. 





‘But thou at table must awhile yet bide, 37 
Because the solid food thy stomach hath 
Needs aid to lead it to digestion’s path. 

Thy mind to my words open thou now wide ; 
Plant them there deep; for ’tis not knowledge 

gained 

To hear a thing, unless it be retained. 

Essential to this sacrifice concur 
Two things; the form, the matter of it, one, 
The bond the other ’neath which ’tis begun. * 


“This bond can no man from its moorings stir; 46 
It must be followed ; wherefore of its force 
I have already made so strict discourse. 
Therefore upon the Hebrews God did call 
To offer still, although the offering might 
Sometimes commuted be; am I not right? 
The other thing which rests in method all, 
May well be such that none can forfeit praise 
If it be changed for other methods’ ways. 


“But let none be the judge in his own case; 55 
Both keys should turn, the white and yellow, used 
Whene’er God’s gifts to man have been abused. 

And on no permutation confidence place 
Unless the method lost ye can infix 
Within the new, as four’s contained in six. 

But if a thing is of such weighty worth 
That it outweighs whate’er’s against it weighed, 
Its compensation cannot be o’erpaid. 


206 Paradiso. 


The divine Plan. 








**And to seduce your love should aught else seem, 10 
Nought is it but some ill-distinguished mark 
Of that same light, which spark emits on spark. 
Thy question is, if with good works for sin 
Of breaking vows, can such return be made 
That on the soul no burden will be laid.” 
Thus Beatrice did this Canto’s lines begin ; 
And as one who in speech proceeds, her voice ‘ 
Continued thus her strain of argument choice: 





“ The greatest gift that from the bounty e’er 19 
Of God creating came, and which doth rise 
Nearest His heights, and that which He doth 

prize 

Most highly, is that gift in largess fair 
Alone His intellectual creatures given, 

| The freedom of the will, best boon of heaven. 

‘Now reason hence, and thou wilt see how high 
In worth a vow is, when God’s mind doth treat 
With yours to make it; His and yours here 

meet. . 


‘‘ And thus man doth, in God’s own sovereign eye, 28 
A sacrifice make of this prized treasure, crowned 
By its own act, and by God’s fiat bound. 

What compensation, then, can be returned ? 

Canst thou retain to use what’s not thine own? 
Can theft do good? Canst thou reclaim thy loan? 

Now, on the greater point, thou truth hast learned : 
But Holy Church here dispensation makes ; 
And of apparent contradiction this partakes. 





Canto V. 207 





The Wills of God and Man. 





“But thou at table must awhile yet bide, 37 
Because the solid food thy stomach hath 
Needs aid to lead it to digestion’s path. 

Thy mind to my words open thou now wide ; 
Plant them there deep; for ’tis not knowledge 

gained 7 | 

To hear a thing, unless it be retained. 

Essential to this sacrifice concur 
Two things; the form, the matter of it, one, 
The bond the other ‘neath which ’tis begun. » 


“This bond can no man from its moorings stir; 46 
It must be followed; wherefore of its force 
I have already made so strict discourse. 
Therefore upon the Hebrews God did call 
To offer still, although the offering might 
Se» times commuted be; am I not right? 
ier thing which rests in method all, 
well be such that none can forfeit praise 
be changed for other methods’ ways. 


let none be the judge in his own case; 55 
-h keys should turn, the white and yellow, used 
1ene’er God’s gifts to man have been abused. 
on no permutation confidence place 

Unless the method lost ye can infix 

Within the new, as four’s contained in six. 

But if a thing is of such weighty worth 
That it outweighs whate’er’s against it weighed, 
Its compensation cannot be o’erpaid. 


208 Paradiso. 





Jephthah. Agamemnon. 





* At random vow not, or in jest or mirth ; 64 
Be faithful wholly, and not blind therein, 

As Jephthah when to vow he did begin, 

Who should have said ‘I have done wrong,’ not kept 
His vow, and thus worse done; as foolish, too, 
One must the mighty Grecian leader view 

Whose Iphigenia her fair face bewept, 

And tears alike from wise and simple brought 
That men of worship such as this had thought. 


“Christians! be ye to principles more true ; 73 
Not by each wind be ye like feathers blown, 
Nor deem that every fount doth merits own. 

Ye have the Testaments, the Old and New, 

Ye have the Pastor of the church your guide; 
Let them for your eternal needs provide. 

If evil appetite hail you with its cries, 

Be ye as men, and not as sheepish stocks 
Whereat the Jew among you justly mocks, 


“Be ye not as the lamb that doth despise 82 
Its mother’s milk, and like a silly elf, 
At its own pleasure, combat with itself.” 

I write what Beatrice unto me did speak ; 
Whereon, filled full with love, she turned again 
To parts where most doth heaven its influence 

rain. 

I had in mind more answers yet to seek, 

But on me silence brought her silent mood 
And countenance changed, of thought, not 
speech, the food ; 





Canto V. 209 





Sphere of Mercury. 





And, swift as speeds an arrow from the bow, gt 
The mark attaining ere the bowstring sleeps, 
The second realm we reached in heavenly deeps. 

My Lady then with radiance such did glow, 

Soon as that Heaven her presence entered bright, 
The planet grew more luminous to the sight ; 

And if the star itself seemed warmed and blest, 
What felt I then, who am by nature apt 
To be by every hallowing influence rapt! 


As, in a fish-pond pure whose wavelets rest, 100 
The fishes draw t’wards that which food they 
deem, 


As there they see it through the crystal beam, 
So drew a thousand splendors, then, and more, 
Our place towards, and words each uttered glad : 
“ Behold her come who shall to our love add!” 
And as each came, effulgence seemed to pour 
Ample and clear from each, which made us know 
That with beatitude added each did glow. 


Think, Reader, if that which begins just here 109 
Should go no further, what an agonized need 
Your mind would feel to have the theme proceed ; 

And thou wilt of thyself know how, to hear 
Their state, me filled with curiosity keen, 

Since that themselves were by mine eyesight 
seen. 

“O born in happy hour, and by Grace led 
To see, e’er ends your warfare, where arise 

- The eternal triumph’s thrones throughout the 

skies, 


210 Paradiso. 





Radiant Justinian. 





“Glow we with light that throughout heaven is 
spread, 118 
And if of us thou inquiry aught wouldst make, 
Let plenteously thy pleasure’s asking take.” 
Thus spoke one ’mongst those radiant spirits blest ; 
And Beatrice then: “Speak, speak, and feel 
secure ; 
Trust them as Gods, their every thought is pure.” 
“Well I discern how thou thyself dost nest 
In thine own light, which from thine eyes is 
poured, 
Because they, sparkling, with thy smile accord, 


** But who thou art I know not, spirit august, —_27 
Nor why thy station in that sphere is made 
Whose brightness doth in alien brightness fade.” 

This said I t’wards the lofty soul who just 
Had me addressed, whence brighter it became 
And beauty took which made its first glow tame. 

Even as the sun, that shades itself in wings 
Of too much light, when hath his heat away 
The tempering influence worn of vapors gray, 


By greater rapture its own radiance brings, 136 
Concealed itself the saintly figure high, 
And thus close, close, enwrapped, me made reply 
In mode whereof the following Canto sings, 


Ne P 





;- Canto V. 211 





Notes. 





NOTES TO THE FIFTH CANTO. 


12. “ Zhat same light.” Longfellow quotes from Burns, 
The Vision: 


“T saw thy pulse’s maddening play 
Wild send thee pleasure’s devious way, 
Misled by fancy’s meteor ray, 
By passion driven ; 
And yet the light that led astray 
Was light from heaven.” 


24. “ The freedom of the will.” 


** Them thus employed beheld 
With pity Heaven’s high King, and to him call’d 
Raphael, the sociable spirit, that designed 
To travel with Tobias, and secured 
His marriage with the seven-times wedded maid. 

*«“ Raphael,’ said he, ‘thou hear’st what stir on earth 
Satan, from hell scaped, through the darksome gulf, 
Hath raised in Paradise, and how disturbed 
This night the human pair. . . 

Go, therefore, half this day as friend with friend 
Converse with Adam . . . and such discourse bring on 
As may advise him of his happy state; 
Happiness in his power left free to will, 
Left to his own free will, his will though free 
Yet mutable ; whence warn him to beware 
He swerve not, too secure; tell him withal 
His danger, and from whom.’” 
Paradise Lost, v. 219- 


31. “ Compensation.” In the sense of commutation. Here 
occurs in the text of Dante a hiatus in the sense which requires 
that the following, or similar, words should be supplied: 
“ And now, in the case supposed, that the vow, so solemn in 
its nature, be broken, what compensation for the breach can 
be rendered? What commutation? What equivalent?” 

43. “ Two things.” The one the nature of the vow, the 
other its exact terms. 

49. “ Therefore upon the Hebrews.” Final chapter of Levit- 
icus ; and verses 4 and 5 of the fifth chapter of Aeclesiastes. 


212 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





52. “ The other thing.” ‘The thing sacrificed, the thing of 
which an offering is made. 

56. “ Both keys.” Purgatorio, Canto ix. line 108. 

66. “ Fephthah.” For victory over the Ammonites, Jeph- 
thah vowed to sacrifice by fire the first person who should 
meet him on his return to his house. This person was his 
own daughter. She approached him “with timbrels and 
with dances.” 

69. “Zhe mighty Grecian leader.” Agamemnon. He 
offended Diana by killing a stag in a grove sacred to her. 
His vow was to sacrifice to the Goddess whatsoever the year 
should to him bring forth most beautiful. When the expe- 
dition against Troy was about to set sail from Aulis, Calchas 
the seer declared that the Gods demanded the sacrifice of 
Iphigenia. But when the immolation was about to take 
place, Diana herself, more merciful than her minister, inter- 
vened, and bore the maid in a cloud to Tauris where Iphigenia 
became her priestess. 

80. “ Sheepish stocks.” Dante says in his Convito, i. 2: “If 
one sheep should throw itself down a precipice of a thousand 
feet, all the others would follow, and if one sheep, in passing 
along the road, leaps from any cause, all the others leap, 
though seeing no cause for it. And I once saw several leap 


into a well, on account of one that had leaped in, thinking, - 


perhaps, it was leaping over a wall; notwithstanding that the 
shepherd, weeping and wailing, opposed them with arms and 
breast.” 

93. “ The second realm.” Dante’s mode of rising to a new 
sphere was always by tasting, with his eyes, of the divine 
countenance of Beatrice, as Glaucus, with his tongue, tasted 
of the divine sea-weed. 

106, 108. “ Affulgence ... beatitude added.” Increase of 
joy in the spirits in Paradise is shown by increase of efful- 
gence. 

121. “ One.” The spirit of the Emperor Justinian. 

129. “ Alien brightness.” The brightness of the sun. Mer- 
cury is so near to the sun that it is only visible at the time 














ia 


Canto V. 213 





Notes. 





of its greatest elongation, that is, when two lines drawn from 
the earth to the sun and Mercury include their greatest angle. 
133, 134. “Jn wings of too much light.” 
** Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear, 


Yet dazzle heaven.” 
Paradise Lost, iii. 380. 


‘* A flaming mount, whose top 
Brightness had made invisible.”’ 
Ib. v. 598. 


CANTO SIXTH. 


ARGUMENT: 


Justinian recalls the history of the Church, and the Empire, 
and his personal history, and speaks in high praise of 
Romeo, minister of Raymond Berenger, Count of Pro- 
vence. Dante diverges into the field of Italian politics. 

Still the Heaven of Mercury. 


PERSON SPEAKING: Justinian. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Archangels. The spirits of the 
great dead. Dante. Beatrice. 


“ ArverR that Constantine the Eagle turned 
Against heaven’s course, a flight it had pursued 
Since him who won Lavinia doubly wooed, 

Two hundred years and more with ardor burned 
The bird of God on Europe’s edge extreme, 
Near mounts which first its eyrie held and dream ; 

And, to its consecrated mission true, 

It governed all, held on the prince’s hand, 
Then came to mine its mastering plumage grand. 





Canto VI. 215 





The Rock of Faith. 





“Cesar I was, and am Justinian, who 10 
(The Primal Love I own the moving cause) 
The useless took and obsolete from the laws; 
And, ere upon this work engaged, believed 
One nature to exist in Christ, not more, 
And such false faith with pleased contentment 
bore. 
Therefrom the Supreme Pastor me relieved, 
Agapetus, now the blessed, who made clear 
My way to find the rock of faith sincere. 


“Him I believed, and that his words were meet 19 
I now see clearly, for both false and true, 
E’en in your contestations, spring to view. 

Soon as the Church to its ways brought my feet, 
‘It pleased God’s grace me for this task to inspire, 
And I it gave my time and care entire. 

Mine army I ’neath Belisarius placed, 
And him heaven’s right hand plainly joined 

therein, 

As if to rest me had its purpose been. 


“Mine answer thus to your first question haste 28 
Might say is made, but character such it hath 
That I more slowly will pursue its path. 

That thou may’st see the little reason shown 
By men who ’gainst the sacred standard move, 
Men not alone who hate it but approve, 

Behold what mighty power hath been its own, 
Beginning from that hour when Pallas died 
To give it honor and reverence far and wide. 


216 Paradiso. 





The Empire. 





“Thou know’st well how in Alba’s walls it dwelt 37 
Three hundred years and upwards till the glaive 
Of strife the valiant three to three there gave. 

Thou know’st well how to it the Sabines knelt, 
Down to Lucretia’s grief, when, battle-proud, 
’*Fore its seven kings the neighboring nations 

bowed. 

Thou know’st well how ’neath it bore Romans down 
’Gainst Brennus, Pyrrhus, and their allies strong, 
And shone illustrious throughout contests long. 


*'Torquatus thence, and Quinctius, from his crown 46 
Unkempt so named, the Decii, Fabii calm, 
That fame received I gladly here embalm. 

It quelled the pride of the Arabian hordes 
Which, led by Hannibal on, through Alpine snow, 
Brought terror to thy sources, fruitful Po! 

Pompey and Scipio with their youthful swords 
Beneath it triumphed, and sore felt its scorn 
That fortressed hill beneath which thou wast born. 


“Then, when the time approached which heaven 
had willed 55 
Should give the whole world its own mood serene, 
Rome willed its aid to Cesar’s valor keen, 
Its victories which ’twixt Var and Rhine all thrilled, 
The Isére’s waves saw, the Sadne’s, and silvery 
Seine’s, | 
And all the valleys whence the Rhone leads rains ; 
Its victories when it had Ravenna stilled, 
And leaped the Rubicon’s bound, a flight attained 
Whereto in vain would tongue or pen be strained. 


Canto VI. 217 





The Trump Pompeian. 





“Tts legions, then, t’'wards Spain it wheeled, then 
sought 64 

Dyracchium’s shores, and so Pharsalia smote 
That, stung, the lukewarm Nile thereof took note. 

Antandros and the Simois, whence ’t was brought 
It saw again, and where lies Hector’s life, 
And, ill for Ptolemy, spread its folds in strife. 

Then flashed its limpid levin on Juba’s arms; 
Then, when the trump Pompeian would molest, 
It wheeled, and went again unto your west. 


“From what it wrought iartcen its next lord’s 
alarms 73 
Brutus and Cassius howling are in Hell, 
And Modena and Perugia woe befell. 
Hence still doth wretched Cleopatra weep, 
Who, when pursued by its close-led attack, 
Took from the adder’s sting sudden death and 
black. 
By this lord led, it sought the Red Sea deep, 
While of the world such peace possessed the states 
That Janus of his temples barred the gates. 


“ But victories all that had this standard won 82 
Before this date, or after should, through realms 
Where mortal triumph mortal effort whelms, 

Dim and inglorious are, compared with one 
Which might the Cesar Third have gained (if seen 
This Caesar be with heart and vision clean) 

Because the living Justice which I breathe 
The glory granted in his hands its wrath 
To pour in vengeance round this standard’s path, 


218 Paradiso. 





Titus. 





“ But, as thou know’st, it Titus’ brows did wreathe 9: 
With fadeless bays, to inflict, midst war’s harsh 
din, 
Vengeance for vengeance of the ancient sin. 
And when the tooth of Lombardy sought to gore 
The Holy Church, her flanks did well Charle- 
magne | 
Under her wings victorious shield from pain. 
And, for thyself, judge thou those whom before 
I challenged to thee, judge their crying crimes, 
Which are the cause of all your troublous times. 


“One party, ’gainst the universal ensign, rears 100 
The yellow lilies; the other for its own 
That ensign claims: both sin, not one alone. 

Ye Ghibellines, this to an honest mind appears: 
Should ‘neath some other standard train your arts, 
Not here should train who it and justice parts. 

But let not this new Charles its folds assail, 

He and his Guelphs: the talons him may quell 
Which from a nobler lion stripped the fell. 


“The father’s crime oft causes sons to wail ; 109 
Nor can he think that God His plans will yield, 
And change His heraldry for the lilied shield. 

This little planet with good souls is bright, 

Whose active lives pursued the lofty aim 
That might their names be ever dear to fame; 

And whensoever to this lesser height 
Reach claims imperfect thus, the height ’s thus less 
Than where desires t’wards higher ideals press. 







eet LIBRARS 








a OF THE 
UONIVERSITY 
Canto CA ORNS ; 
Italy. be —— 
* But herein also joy we find that meet 118 


To our desert our wages portioned are, 

Nor doth the thought one. blissful moment mar, 
Because that living Justice makes so sweet 

Affection in us that can never win 

Regret one slightest tendency here to sin. 
Voices divine sweet music make, and so 

‘These grades diverse sweet harmony make among 

Spheres where, throughout, deep gratitude rules 

the tongue. 


** And in the enclosure of this pearl doth glow 127 
The sheen that Romeo sheds, whom ill reward 
For fair and goodly work vouchsafed his lord. 

But the Provengals for their wrong atone 
Where little cause there is for smiles and mirth; 
Sad men are they who smile by others’ worth, _ 

Four daughters, each of whom attained a throne, 
Had Raymond Berenger ; and Romeo’s thought, 
A pilgrim poor though he, this ’round had 

brought. 


“Then to malicious words his lord gave way, _ 136 
And to a reckoning called this man of men, 
Who to him seven and five returned for ten. 

Though poor and stricken in years, he scorned to 

Stay ; 
And, if the world could know the heart he bore, 
In begging morsels from kind door to door, 
*T would greater praise than e’er it paid him, pay.” 


220 Paradiso. 





Notes, 





NOTES TO THE SIXTH CANTO. 


1. “ Constantine.” Constantine, by changing the seat of 
the Empire from Rome to Byzantium, named by him New 
Rome and Constantinople, turned the flight of the Roman 
eagle towards the east. Aineas, the founder of the Roman 
Empire, had brought the eagle towards the west, following 
the course of the sun in the heavens. 

3. “ Lavinia doubly wooed.” By Turnus the native prince 
and Aineas the wanderer from Troy. Both sought this 
amiable daughter of King Latinus, 

‘* Her royal tresses fair and gem-wrought crown,” 
and the defeat of Turnus in the single combat gave her to 
the Trojan. 

4. “ Zwo hundred years and more.” ‘The interval between 
the date at which Constantine made Byzantium his seat of 
government, 324, and the date of the reign of Justinian, 527. 

5. “On Europe's edge extreme.” On the eastern borders 
of Europe, the boundaries of Asia, near the Trojan chain of 
which Mount Ida forms a link. 

8. “Zt governed all.” According to the prophecy of An- 
chises made in the Lower World to Aineas, the mission of 
Rome was to govern the nations: 

‘** But thou, O Roman, mind thee the great arts 
Of government to learn. These shall be thine. 
Thou shalt thine Empire on the peoples lay. 
Thou shalt the ways of Peace unto them teach. 


Thou shalt the conquered spare, but shalt fight down 
The proud contemners of thy State and Laws.”’ 


10. “ Fustinian.” Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall, chap. 
xliii., describes Justinian as affable, laborious, abstémious, as 
giving himself little time for sleep, and as subjecting him- 
self to rigorous fasts. But the age was unfortunate. Learned 
in law, in theology, in philosophy and poetry, he failed to 
meet the expectations of his people; his marriage was not 
to their liking, and the empress and his ministers abused 
their powers. 


Canto VI. — ‘ 221 





Notes. 





12. “ Zhe laws.” John and Tribonian, in fourteen months, 
condensed into twelve books the Imperial Constitutions, 
which had not been revised since the time of Theodosius. 
Tribonian and sixteen other jurists were then set to work on 
the Digest, which they arranged in fifty books, containing 
the substance of two thousand, under the title: “ Digest or 
Pandects of the Eliminated Law, collected from all the 
ancient law.” This work required three years (530-533). 
Then, Tribonian, Theophilus, and Dorotheus were ordered 
to prepare an elementary work under the title of the In- 
stitutes. The revision of the new code and the collection of 
the new Constitutions followed. 

The Institutes start out with a proposition which suggests 
Dante and his purity of principle, and even exhibits the treble 
rhyme of the Commedia: 

** Juris precepta sunt hec: 
Honeste vivere, 


Neminem non ledere, 
Suum cuique tribuere.” 


14. “ One nature.” The heresy of Eutyches, who asserted 
that only the Divine nature existed in Christ, not the human; 
that the Divine nature had absorbed the human in the process 
of uniting with it. This was equivalent to denying the suffer- 
ings of Christ upon the cross. 

17. “ Agdpetus.” Pope, ten months, 535-536. In 536 he 
undertook a voyage from Rome to Constantinople in the 
capacity of a commissioner, to reconcile the conflict of affairs 
in Italy and Asia, civil, military, and religious. His courage 
and address were rewarded with success. He fell ill and 
died in Constantinople. His remains were brought to Rome. 

21. “ E’en in your contestations.” Dante is here at pains to 
make the emperor’s philosophy apply to the state of poli- 
tics in Italy, the question of church and state, the strifes of 
Ghibelline and Guelph, and Black and White. 

25. “ Belisarius.” The once favorite general was accused, 
but on trial acquitted, of conspiring to compass the death of 
the emperor; but the popular story, embellished with the 


222 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





words from the lips of a blind beggar, “date obolem Beli- 
sario,” is supposed to be without foundation. 

33- “ Alen not alone who hate it, but approve.” The sacred 
standard, the Roman eagle, Justinian says, has suffered from 
open enemies and avowed friends. Another allusion to the 
intestine wars and plots of the Italians of the time of Dante, 
when violence, venality, and treachery ruled the course of 
public events. 

35. “ Pallas.” 

“ € Go, decorate now,’ he said, ‘ with gifts supreme, 

The memory fair of those illustrious souls 

Who, by their blood for us so freely shed, 

Have won a land we may our country call. 

And, first, unto Evander’s sorrowing town 

Must we his Pallas send, whom that dark day 
Removed, rich as he was in virtue’s gifts, 

And sunk the bitter waves within of death.’ ” 

Eleventh AZ neid, 23. 


37, 40, 43. “ Zhou know’st . . . thou know'st ... thou 
caw TE Gales SRAL oss, BAL 

39. “ Three to three.” The Horatii and Curiatii. 

40. “ Sabines ... Lucretia.” The rape of the Sabine women 
brought on war wherein the Roman eagle triumphed over the 
Sabine men, in the days of Romulus the first of the seven 
kings. The violence done to Lucretia by Tarquin the proud 
ended the dynasty of the same kings. 

44. “ Brennus.” The Romans, under Camillus, so “ bore 
down” upon Brennus that they annihilated his command. 
Tradition says that not one survived to tell the tale. Bren- 
nus surprised the city while it was defenceless and in a state 
of panic. Alone the Roman Senate preserved its equanimity, 
to such an extent that, until violence was offered to them, 


the Gauls supposed the senators to be statues of the Gods. 


The last rallying place of the populace was the capitol. An 
attempt to capture this fortress by night was defeated by the 
noise of geese, some accounts say, the sacred geese of Juno, 
kept in that enclosure, but others say a goose or geese which 
appeared there in a supernatural manner. The supernatural, 


—————— 





Canto VI. 223 





Notes. 





or miraculous, account is adopted by Dante in his work De 
Monarchia, ii. 4.. Virgil has given, on the Shield of AZneas, 
the picture of this repulse: 
‘* And here the silver goose, in porticoes high 

Of gold, sung that the Gauls the threshold pressed, 

And then the Gauls came on among the leaves, 

And had the fortress reached, by darkness helped, 

And by the shadows hid. And golden shone 

Their hair, and gold their dress. Bright shine their coats 

Gay-striped. Their milk-white necks their golden chains 

Hang round. Gleam in their hands two Alpine staffs, 

And shields of ample length their limbs protect.”? 


And, in the Vision of Anchises, he introduces Camillus . 

returning from his successful campaign : . 
** And comes Camillus, bringing from proud foes 
In Gallia’s land, his country’s standards back.”? 

American annals have produced an American Camillus: 
Sitting Buffalo, usually called Sitting Bull, Tatonkaiyotonka, 
a chief of the Dakotas. On the 25th day of July, 1876, he 
made a total destruction of the force under General Custer. 
The history of this chief illustrates the native beauty of the 
aboriginal nomenclature. Sitting bull was first named Stand- 
ing Angel: Wakaniyonajin. It was designed that he should 
become a medicine-man, a prophet, a sacred poet. He de- 
veloped, however, in a campaign against the Crows, the 
hereditary enemies of the Dakotas, such military ability and 
such a fund of personal prowess, that his father concluded to 
change his career, and with his change of career, his name. 
It may be noted that names of exalted significance are not 
unknown to our Indian annals. ‘Tecumseh, the name of the 
head of the formidable Shawnee confederacy, is, when trans- 
lated, the Shooting Star; and the tribe of the Foxes counted 
among its chieftains at the treaty held at Prairie-du-Chien, 
in Michigan, in the year 1825, the name of Tagwanatekishu, 


the Thunder-that-is-heard-around-the-W orld. 


44. “ Pyrrhus.” A King of Epirus. Born about 318, died 
272. He boasted his descent from Achilles. He at one time 
advanced to within twenty-four miles of Rome. He was held 


* ier ® 


224 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





in esteem not only as a commander, but as an author on the 
art of war. . 

46, 47. “ Torquatus ... Decit... Fabii”’? In the Vision 
of Anchises: 


** And just now, see the Decii there; and see, 
There, in the distance, too, the Drusi pass; 
And with his axe severe Torquatus comes; 

Or where drive ye, great Fabii, wearied me, — 
Ye, of whom thou the Greatest, art the one 
Who by delay to us the State restored?” 


46. “ Quinctius.” Cincinnatus, that is, “the curly haired.” 
50. “ Hannibal.” Horace, Odes, iv. 4, puts into the mouth 
of Hannibal lofty praises of Rome and the Romans: 


*“Gens, quz cremato fortis ab Llio, 
Jactata Tuscis zquoribus sacra, 
Natosque maturosque patres 
Pertulit Ausonias ad urbes, 


** Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus <- 
Nigrz feraci frondis in Algido, 
Per damna, per czdes, ab ipso 
Ducit opes animumque ferro.”? 


Of the Latin lines the following imperfect translation is 
submitted : 


“¢ |. . That race inflexible as brave 
Which, from the flaming walls of Troy, 
Across the untried Tuscan wave, 
Bore parent, wife, and prattling boy, 
And household Gods, and daughters coy, 
To far Ausonian towns, to destined grief or joy. 


* Like as the ilex axes lop 
Of all its boughs, where richly rise 
The woods which Algidus o’ertop, 
All shorn, its loss it can despise : 
Where every slaughtered army lies 
It draws from hostile swords a strength that never dies.” 


52. “ Pompey.” In the Vision of Anchises: 


** And thou dost see in harmony blent two souls. 
Brilliant alike, with equal arms and will, 


ns 


Canto VI. 225 





Notes. 





They stand, while on their heads night settles down. 
Alas! between them what fell war would rise 

If that by them the light of life were reached! 

What combats, then, would rage, with endless deaths 
And gory fields foul with fraternal hate!” 


52. “Scifio.” In the Vision of Anchises : 


‘The Scipios grim, twin thunderbolts of war, 
And Libya's scourge.”’ 


54. “ Zhat fortressed hill.’ Fesole, the ancient Fesulz, 
about three and a half miles northeast of Florence. It was 
the refuge of Catiline and his force, and was destroyed by an 
attacking army. Restored, it was again, by the Florentines, 
dismantled, in roto. 

56. “Serene.” Prophecy of the coming of Christ, in the 


Pollio: 
‘* He shall of Gods the life accept, his eyes 
Heroic men with Gods commingled see, 
And he by them be seen and recognized. 
He shall, by virtue of his Father’s powers, 
Reign rightful ruler o’er a world at peace.”? 


67. “ Antandros . . . Simois.” 


** When now the Asian power to overthrow, 
And Priam’s race, not meriting such fate, 
To whelm in waves of ruin heaped on high, 
It pleased the Gods above; and Ilium fell 
Superb, and all Neptunian Troy in smoke 
Lay prostrate; led by auguries great of heaven 
To seek wide exile and unpeopled shores, 
A fleet we build beneath Antandros’ self, 
And Phrygian Ida’s mountains; yet not sure 
Whereto the Fates might bear us, where our fleet 
Might stand.” 
Third Ai neid, init. 
** There where roll on 
Beneath the Simoan wave, red, red, with blood, 
Helmets and shields and bodies of the brave.” 
First Aineid, roo. 


69. “ Ptolemy.” It was “ill for Ptolemy ” when the Roman 
eagle, “spreading its wings in strife” for Cleopatra, deprived 
Ptolemy of any share in the government. 


226 Paradiso. 


\ | : m 
; 
: 





Notes. 





70. “ Fuba.” He protected the enemies of Cesar, after 
the battle of Pharsalia, and, in consequence, lost his own 
kingdom, Numidia. 

71. “ Pompeian.” ‘The final engagements of the Civil War 
were in the west, in Spain. 

73. “ Next lord.” Octavius, the Emperor Augustus. He 
defeated Brutus and Cassius at Philippi. 

75. “Modena and Perugia.” Near these cities were fought 
bloody battles between Augustus and Antony. 

76. “ Cleopatra.” On the Shield of Aineas: 


“The Queen 
Unto the winds her sails was seen to give, 
And now, now, let the cordage slacken free. 
Her among slaughters, dreading death to come 
The Ignipotent had there made pale and wan, 
Borne from the fight by waves and Iapyx’s breeze.”’ 


86. “ Cesar Third.” Tiberius. This emperor, Dante says, 
might have made his reign illustrious for avenging the cruci- 
fixion of Christ, but this honor was reserved for Titus. 

90. “ Vengeance for vengeance of the ancient sin.” That is: 
vengeance for the crucifixion. The crucifixion was vengeance 
for the sin of Adam and his descendants. As to man, the 
crucifixion was just; but a God was crucified: it was, in this 
sense, unjust. Dante will revert hereto in the next Canto, 
" line 20. 

94, 96. “ Lombardy ... Charlemagne.” The Lombards 
attacked the Church, and were subdued by Charlemagne. 
Justinian, Dante would have us understand, is here speaking 
prophetically, as the reigns of Justinian and Charlemagne 
were three hundred years apart. May there not be, here, 
also, an intimation, on the part of Dante, that when an age 
degenerates into savagery (as Dante’s own age had), even 
religion may have to be fought for? 

tor. “ Lilies.” The Golden Lilies of the French ensign. 
The Ghibellines had taken for their ensign the Roman eagle, 
too good an ensign, Dante intimates, for vicious partisans. 
The Guelphs, another vicious party uniting with the French, 


Canto VI. 227 





Notes. 





had assumed the Fleur-de-Lys, the Golden-Lilied banner. 
The Roman eagle, Dante says, is the symbol of justice, and 
the Guelphs will do well not to attack it. The Eagle is of 
the heraldry of God. He will not change it for the Lily. 

106. “ Charles... talons...lion.” Charles II. of Apulia, 
son of Charles of Anjou; or, Charles of Valois, son of Philip 
III., and sent for, at this time, by Pope Boniface, who designed 
to make him emperor. Villani, viii. 42. Dante intimates that 
* this “new Charles” is an ignoble whelp, whom some “ old 
Charles,” Charlemagne, may arise to flay. 

114. “ Fame.” Longfellow quotes Milton’s Zycidas: Fame 
is “the spur” of “the clear spirit ;” a “plant” of which Jove 
is the “witness” and “ judge.” 

116. “ Jmperfect.” Will imperfect. 

118. “ 70 our desert our wages portioned are.” Dante thus 
alludes again to the varying heights of bliss accorded to the 
denizens of heaven, proportioned to their several gifts of the 
grace of God. In the Fourth Canto he said: 


‘* But ad/ the primal circle’s glory grace, 
And this sweet life partake, in diverse grades, 
As more or less God’s grace their souls pervades.” 


128. “ Romeo.” * A case of ingratitude, intended to point 
the moral of the line: 


“« Spheres where, throughout, deep gratitude rules the tongue.” 


Raymond Berenger, Count of Provence, had long profited by 
the services of a faithful steward, who, besides being the 
manager of negotiations through which the count’s four 
daughters married each a king, had increased the value of 
his estates one fifth. But malicious tongues succeeded in 
poisoning the count’s mind against him, and Romeo departed 
as poor as he came. 

The four royal matches were Margaret, married to Saint 
Louis of France; Beatrice, married to his brother, Charles 
of Anjou, King of Naples; Eleanor, married to Henry Third 
of England ; and Sancha, married to Henry’s brother, Richard, 
King of the Romans. 


228 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





There seems some ground for supposing that the instance 
of Romeo is cited here because connected with the adored 
name of Beatrice: Beatrice Berenger, wife of the brother of 
Saint Louis. 

142. “ The heart he bore.” Longfellow quotes Lord Bacon, 
Essay on Adversity, to the effect that the blessing of the Old 
Dispensation is prosperity; that of the New, adversity; and 
that, even in the Old, David’s harp has funereal notes; “and 
the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describ- 
ing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon.” 


Ss 


CANTO SEVENTH. 
ARGUMENT: 


Justinian departs, chanting Hosanna, and, with great swift- 
ness of motion, he and other spirits are borne away. Bea- 
trice remains, and instructs Dante on the plan of re- 
demption. 

Still the Heaven of Mercury. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Justinian. Dante. Beatrice. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Archangels. The spirits of the 
great dead. 


“ Hosanna, O thou holy God of hosts, 

Who, with the abundance of thy brightness, fires 
Dost make more bright throughout the heavenly 
choirs!” 

So, wrapped in melody high our orb ne’er boasts, 
This substance sung, the while, a brightening light, 
Double and doubled, it amazed my sight ; 

And danced it and the rest who with it sped 
From where we were, for distance rapidly veiled 
From us their steps, like hurrying sparklets 

trailed. 


230 Paradiso. 





The beloved Name. 





Me doubt possessed, and “ Speak,” it to me said, ro 
“Unto thy Lady,” for no effluence meet 
To slake my thirst e’er failed her accents sweet. 
Yet with such awe, such reverence e’er was led 
My heart by all of Beachy’s name spelled out, 
That drowsiness me seemed wholly wrapt about. 
Not long did Beatrice this my mood endure; 
She spoke, whilst me she gave a smile so bright 
That in the flames ’t would tortures silence quite. 


“ As comes to me advice from sources pure, 19 
_ Thou pondering art in what way vengeance just 
Can justly be avenged; in me put trust, 
And I will speedily set thy mind at rest; 
And I a present to thy listening ear 
Will make, which shall a wondrous doctrine hear. 
By suffering not his will to be repressed 
For his own good, that man who ne’er had birth 
Himself condemned and all his heirs on earth; 


“Whereby mankind through error’s mazes ranged 28 
Diseased for centuries many till the Word 
Of God it pleased to make His mission heard ; 
And humbled to man’s nature so estranged, 
He it to his own person joined, a plan 
Which in God’s everlasting love began. 
Now let thy sight none other aim distract: 
This nature, which its Maker thus assumed, 
At its creation, with all goodness bloomed, 


Canto VII. 231 


The Way divine. 








“ But banished was by its own wilful act 37 
From Paradise forth because its ways at strife 
Were with the way divine of truth and life. 

Therefore so just was never penalty borne 
As bore the cross, if we for measure take 
Our nature so assumed for mortals’ sake, 

And ne’er was act which justice so would scorn 
If be the measure taken the Person, shame 
Who bore, mankind to shield from blame. 


“And flowed from that one act effects diverse: 46 

One death pleased God, and pleased the Jews, 
and riven 

By this dread death was earth, and opened 
Heaven. 

It should not, then, from reason seem averse 
When a just court on vengeance just ’t is said 
Directs that vengeance in return be sped. 

But yet remains perplexed, I see, thy mind; 
Thought tangles thought ; and from the knot relief 
Is now, ‘midst all the maze, its yearning chief. 


“Thou say’st: ‘ Instruction clear herein I find, 55 
But from me hidden is it why one mode 
Alone for our redemption God bestowed.’ 
Brother, remaineth buried this decree 
Unto the eyes of souls not fully grown, 
And whom not yet love’s fires perfected own. 
It is, in very truth, a mark which see, 
Well-orbed, few eyes, e’en after lengthened gaze ; 
Hear, then, why this was worthiest of these ways. 


232 Paradiso. 





Beauties eternal. 





“‘ Celestial Goodness, which hath envy none, 64 
From out its sparkling furnace’s sun-bright heart, 
Beauties eternal suffers to depart. 

What distillation thence hath once begun 
End none doth afterwards find, the impress stays 
The seal gave forth moved by that heart’s own 

ways. 

Whate’er from this source raineth freedom hath 
Because whene’er new things attend its way 
With influence none do these its progress stay. 


“Joys it the more the more it holds the path, 73 
For that blest ardor brightening every coast 
In what’s most like itself takes pleasure most. 

With all of these things hath advantaged been 
The human creature; if lack there one thing, 
To his nobility this may ruin bring. 

Alone what can disfranchise him is sin, 
Which renders him so unlike the Good Supreme 
That but a little blanches him its beam, 


** And dignity lost hath no return, unless, 82 
To bring it back, is filled again with pain 
The emptiness made by folly’s jocund train, 
Your nature, when it sunk in sin’s distress, 
In its own seed its God-like dignity lost, 
And e’en to you it goodly Paradise cost ; 
Nor could regain its footing (thou wilt own, 
All subtlety exhausted) by mode aught 
Than these two fords across the torrent sought : 





Canto VII. 233 


Bounty. 








“ Fither that God, through clemency mild alone, 9: 
Had pardon granted, or for folly, weighed 
’Gainst duty, man had satisfaction made. 

Fix now thine eye the deep abyss within 
Of God’s eternal counsel, and give heed 
To words of mine which will thine hunger feed. 

Man, in his limitations, had e’er been 
Powerless to satisfy; for not he could go 
Sinking, in his humility bowed, so low 


“As would the height be that he thought to 
soar 100 

In disobedience, and ’tis thus made plain, | 
His hopes to satisfy by himself were vain. 

Then to his perfect life man to restore, 
God, it behooved, should work in his own ways, 
In one or both ways, both deserving praise ; 

But since the deed the doer doeth, when feel 
‘Men placed therein the goodness of his heart, 
More joy to the recipients doth impart, 


** Goodness divine, that doth the universe seal, 109 
Hath been so minded all its ways to use 
To lift you up, and none of them refuse, 

Nor, ’twixt the last night and the primal day, 
Procedure such on so magnificent scale 
F’er did, or shall, one or the other hail ; 

For God more bounty far did then display 
In himself giving that thus man might lift 
Himself aloft, than were it his mere gift ; 


~ 


234 Paradiso. 





Bliss. 





*‘ And for his justice had all other modes 118 
Inadequate been had not Incarnate trod 
Humility’s path to death the Son of God. 

Now, to search out the last of doubt’s abodes, 

Let me return to one place, where thy mind 
Should see as mine, and be no longer blind. 

Thou sayest, ‘The air I see, the fire, the earth, 
Water, and all the mixtures from them fraught, 
In little time corrupt, dissolved and nought, 


«And yet Creation brought these things to 
birth ;’ 127 
And if what I have said were true, not one 
Of those were by corruption’s mastery won. 
The Angels, brother, and this clime intact 
Around thee now, created may be called, 
With permanence round at their creation walled, 
But all those elements and their compounds lacked 
This permanence, for they from without are 
warmed 
By a created virtue, and informed. 


“Created was their matter, but bright roll 136 


The stars around them; these have influence 
given 


Which do inform them by the will of Heaven. 
Of every brute, and of the plants, the soul 
Attracts, through its complexion potent, ray 
And motion of those sacred lights each day; 
But on your life, by Goodness Infinite, laid 
Hath been immediate inspiration ; this 
Enamors it; hence longs it for that bliss. 





i) 


Canto VII. 235 


The Parents of the Race. 








“And hence may you draw argument’s forceful 
aid 145 
Your resurrection proving, if again 
Ye think how flesh of man did form attain 
When both the parents of the race were made.” 


NOTES TO THE SEVENTH CANTO. 


5. “ Brightening.” With increase of fervor. 

14. “ Beachy.” An attempt to put into English the Italian 
nickname of Beatrice, “ Bice.” 

17. “A smile so bright.’ Convito, iii. 18: “ And I say these 
delights appear in two places, namely, /z her eyes and in her 
sweet smile, which two places may be called balconies of the 
Lady who inhabits the edifice of the body, that is, the Soul. 
... This Lady, the Soul, shows herself in the mouth, as 
color behind glass. And what is laughter but a coruscation 
of the delight of the soul, that is, a light appearing outwardly 
as it exists within? And, therefore, it behooveth man to 
show his soul in moderate joy, to laugh moderately with dig- 
nified severity, and with slight motion of the arms, so that the 
Lady, the Soul, who then shows herself, may appear in her 
natural modesty. Hence 7he Book of the Four Cardinal 
Virtues commands us, ‘Let thy laughter be without cachin- 
nation, that is to say, without cackling like a hen.’ Ah, won- 
derful laughter of my Lady, the Soul, that never is perceived 
but by the eye of the observer! ” 

20. “ Vengeance.” See the preceding Canto, line 93, and 
the note. 

26. “ That man who ne'er had birth.” Adam. 

32. “A plan.” Butler cites, as indispensable to the com- 
prehension of the doctrine of the Incarnation, Saint Thomas 
of Aquin, in his Summa, iii. 2, At, and Az. 

56. “One mode.” Butler continues to refer to Saint 
Thomas, adding to his citations A3. 

65. “ Furnace.” Dante here quotes from Boéthius, Corso- 


236 ; Paradiso. 





Notes. 





lations of Philosophy, iii. 9, who quotes from the Zimeus of 
Plato, 29 E. 

105. “ Both ways.” Mercy and Justice. 

132. “ Permanence.” The Angels, the heavens, and the 
soul are created by immediate inspiration from heaven, the 
immediate breath of God. They are, therefore, enamored of 
God, and desire to returntohim. The animals, the elements, 
and the plants are influenced by the stars, and are perishable. 

146. “ Resurrection.” Dr. Carlyle, as we have seen, as- 
serted that Dante knew history better than the historians, 
and Salvini says that Dante gave him a better knowledge of 
the soul than did the school divines. 


CANTO EIGHTH. \ 


ARGUMENT: fo 


Dante, unaware to himself, is wafted to the planet Venus, the 
sphere of the third Heaven, placed under the control of the 
Principalities of the Heavens, and the sphere set aside for 
the souls of those who on earth were lovers. There, among 
the spirits sounding hosannas, he meets with Charles Mar- 
tel, King of Hungary, and has discourse with him on Italian 
politics and other subjects. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Dante. Charles Martel. Spirits shout- 
ing Hosannas. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Principalities of the Heavens. 
Beatrice. 


THE world believed, when in its perilous days, 
That the fair Cyprian love’s fond rays flung bright 
From the third epicycle’s orb of light ; 

Wherefore not only did unto her raise 
Altars and sacrifice and vows of old 
Nations whom ancient error’s ways controlled, 

But they her son and mother did include 
Herein, Dione she, he Cupid, said 
In Dido’s lap to have sat while banquets sped ; 


238 Paradiso. 





The Principalities. 





And they from her, of whom I here prelude, 10 
The name of that star took the sun which wooes, 
And shows, now following, now in front, its hues. 

Conscious I was not of our being borne 
Into its orb; but it my Lady’s glow 
Increased of beauty made me sweetly know. 

And as a spark a flame’s heart doth adorn, 

And as voice sounds in voice, when comes and 
goes 
One, while the other’s even tenor flows, 


Within that light I lamps of lustre saw 19 
Which circling sped, some swift, some slow, as 
shone 


In each, I thought, interior light its own. 
Ne’er winds from vapor cold in sudden flaw 
Sent down, or seen or unseen, came so swift 
They would not seem as laggards slow to drift 
To one who had those holy flamings seen 
Which now us sought, their circling flight at rest, 
Begun among the lofty Seraphim blest. 


And they that stood remote in that fair scene 28 
Such an hosanna sounded that mine ear 
Hath sought, e’er since, that pleasing strain to 
hear. 
Then came more nearly to us of them one 
Which sole began : “ That thou may’st in us joy, 
As may thee please our offices kind employ. 
With those celestial Princes here we run, 
And with them turn and soar and thirst for more, 
To whom thou didst below thy sonnet pour: 





Canto. VITT. 239 


Charles Martel of Hungary. 








“¢ Ye intellectual, the third Heaven who move,’ 37 
And are so full of love that pleasure thine 
Will readily us to quietude’s rest incline.” 

Mine eyes first sought their reverence deep to prove 
Unto my Lady, and she them content 
Gave with the look that she upon them bent ; 

Then turned unto that lamp whose kindly speech 
Me urged, and with affection great impressed, 
“Say who art thou,” my voice the light addressed. 


Oh, how it brightened in its broad, high reach, 46 
With added joy its former joys took on, 
As soon as from my lips the words were gone! 

Thus changed it spoke : “ Me a short time possessed 
The world below; had longer been my stay, 
Less ill had made upon the earth its way. 

My gladness, which doth me with rays invest, 
Me hides from thee as doth its fair-wrought fell 
A creature swathe in its own silken cell. 


“ Much didst thou love me, and with reason good; ss 
And had I stayed on earth, my love’s young tree 
Had more than barren foliage borne for thee. 

The Rhone’s left bank the time awaiting stood, 
When, from where mingles Sorgue’s fleet flood, 

had bowed 
To me in vassalage all its honors proud, 

With that Ausonian horn of town on town, 
Bari and Gaeta and Catona, where 
Tronto and Verde to the salt sea fare. 


240 Paradiso. 





His Discourse. 





“ Had flashed already on my brow the crown 6 
Of that dominion which the Danube laves 
When German cease to be its seaward waves; 

And beautiful Trinacria, which betwixt 
Pachinus and Pelorus frowns (where wrath 
Upon the gulf accompanies Eurus’ path) 

Not through Typhoais, but clouds sulphur-mixed, 
Would have awaited still her lawful kings 
Whom right from me through Charles and Ru- 

dolph brings, 


“Had not ill rulership, whose sure effect 73 
Is, e’er, to exasperate the people, proved 
What to the cry of ‘Death!’ Palermo moved. 
Had but my brother foresight to detect 
His danger, flight had saved the ruin brought 
By greedy Catalonia poverty-fraught. 
And, truly, there might be of thought desire 
By him, or others for him, lest more freight 
His bark o’erladen sink, or soon or late. 


“He, mean in impulse as was high his sire, 82 
Should ask a soldiery such as were not willed, 
First thing of all, to have their coffers filled.” 

“My lord, now doth my gratitude raise still higher 
Thy speech, which shows my gladness unto thee 
Is manifest, just as thine is unto me, 

Here where doth every good and perfect thing 
Begin and end, and where all truth to learn 
Thou dost t’wards God thine eyes adoring turn. 








Canto-VILI. 2At 





Intellectual Powers. 





“Glad thou hast made me, so to clearness bring, 9: 
Since hath thy speech a doubt me given, why seed 
That sweet is called can bitter progeny breed.” 

Thus I; and he: “If I with truth can mend 
Thy faltering sight, I ‘ll put before thy face 
That which thou now behind thy back dost place. 

The Good, which all this realm thou dost ascend 
Makes move in harmony, gives its providence 

power 
Within these globes effectual hour by hour, 


*“* And know thou ne’er doth perfect intellect lend 100 
Its powers to trace the natures here, but why 
They live in bliss, nor know what ’tis to die. 

And whatsoever doth from this bow wend 
Drives foreordained unto its destined end 
As doth an arrow to its target tend. 

If ’t were not so, these heavens wherein thy course 
Thou takest would effects such cause that here 
Ruins, not arts, would put thy soul in fear. 


“This cannot be unless have failed in force 109 
The Intellectual Powers these stars who rule, 
And He failed first who taught them in his school. 

Wouldst thou this truth in clearer colors ran?” 
And I: “Not so; for this I plainly see, 

That Nature cannot e’er neglectful be.” 

Whence he again: “Say, were it worse for man 
If fellowship’s joys on earth he would decline? ” 
“Yes,” I rejoined, “and here no doubt is mine.” 


242 Pitradiso. 





Society. 





“‘ And can society stand if live not men 118 
In diverse ways where diverse duties grow? 
Read well your master, and he tells you ‘No!’” 

So to this point came his deductions ; then 
Conclusion such he made: “Thus well it suits 
That sins diverse should strike from different 

roots. aE 

Hence one is Solon born, one Xerxes, here 
Melchisedec’s seen, and there that venturous one 
Who, flying through the air, did lose his son. 


“Nature revolving makes her seal appear 127 
On mortal wax, but practicing well her art, 
And not distinguishing inn from inn apart. 
Thence happeneth it that Jacob’s qualities shine 
Not forth in Esau; and Quirinus Mars © 
Is given for father, to hide sinister bars. 
If dominant did not Providence rule divine 
A generated nature would the path 
Always pursue which its progenitor hath. 


*“* Now placed before thee is what was behind ; 136 
But that thou yet another sign may’st bear 
Of my delight, this corollary do thou wear : 
Ever doth nature, if it fortune find 
In discord with it, like each other seed 
In climes unsuited, illy thence proceed ; 
And if the world below would strive to attain 
A basis on foundations nature yields, 
Of fruitage fair, ’t would furnish goodly fields ; 


OS ae 








Canto VIII. 243 
Aptitudes. 
“ But ye unto religion wrongly train 145 | 


Him unto whom ye should the war-sword bring, 
And sermons take from him ye make a king ; 
Therefore your feet err from the pathways plain.” 


NOTES TO THE EIGHTH CANTO. 


2. “ The fair Cyprian.” 


** And Cyprus’ isle, 
In mines, in vines, in men, most excellent found, 
And where white shrines that Venus honored glowed.” 
From the Speech of Queen Dido, First neid, 622. 


3. “ Epicycle”’ The astronomical system of Claudius 
Ptolemy endured for more than fourteen hundred years, from 
the second Christian century to the sixteenth, the date of 
Nicholas Copernicus. Ptolemy, to whose system, as the pre- 
vailing one of his time, Dante conformed, fixed the Zarth as 
the great centre about which the sun, the moon, the planets, 
and the starry heavens revolved. But, to account for irreg- 
ularities in the movements of the sun and moon, he taught 
that the Earth was zof in the exact centre. And, to account 
for the anomalous movements of the planets, he devised the 
system of cycles and epicycles. Every planet, he taught, 
moved uniformly in the circumference of a small circle whose 
centre moved uniformly in the circumference of a large circle 
near whose centre the earth stood poised. By such ingenious 
theorizing it might be shown that a planet might appear at 
one time to be retrograding, at another time to be apparently 
stationary, and at another time to be advancing among the 
fixed stars. And computations predicting the places of the 
planets could, by such theorizing, be made with an element 
of error so small as not to be detected by the rude instru- 
ments in use prior to the time of Copernicus. It is, however, 
a fact in proof of the antiquity of correct theories of the 
universe, that Pythagoras had derived from the Egyptians 
our modern theory of a central sun, and had taught it to the 


244 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





Greeks six hundred years before Ptolemy, two thousand years 
before Copernicus. Mitchel’s Planetary and Stellar Worlds, 
Lecture iii. 

8. “ Dione.” 


** My mother fair, 
Dione’s daughter.” 
From the Speech of Afneas at Queen Dido’s Banquet, 
Third Atneid, 19. 


8,9. “ Cupid... Dido”’ Cupid in the semblance of 
Ascanius, son of Aineas. 


‘* She, with her eyes and heart, 
Her whole heart, clings to him; and while she holds 
Against her breast the blooming youth, knows not, 
Unhappy Dido, that she loves a God.” 
First Aineid, 715. 


11. “ That star.’ Latini (7Z7résor, iii.) says that Venus 
“ always follows the sun, and is beautiful and gentle, and is 
called the Goddess of Love.” When Venus follows the sun, 
it is Hesperus, the evening star; when it precedes, is “in 
front” of, the sun, it is called Phosphor, the morning star. 


*€ Lo, in the painted oriel of the West, 
Whose panes the sunken sun incarnadines, 
Like a fair lady at her casement, shines 
The evening star, the star of love and rest.” 
LONGFELLOW. 


‘* Wake, sisters, wake! the day-star shines; 
Above Ephrata’s eastern pines 
The dawn is breaking, cool and calm. 
Wake, sisters, wake to prayer and psalm.” 
Sister Maria Christina’s Song, in the Wymu of the Tonhaes: 
WHITTIER. 


** Venus near her, smiling downward at this earthlier earth of ours. 
Closer on the sun, perhaps, a world of never-fading flowers ; 
Hesper, whom the poet called the bringer home of all good kings — 
All good things may move in Hesper, perfect peoples, perfect things. 
Hesper, Venus, were we native to that splendor, or in Mars, 
We should see the globe we groan in fairest of their évening stars. 
Could we dream of wars and carnage, craft and madness, lust and spite, 








Canto VIII. s 245 


Notes. 











Roaring London, raving Paris, in that point of peaceful light? 
Might we not, in glancing heavenward on a star so silvery fair, 
Yearn and clasp the hands and murmur, ‘ Would to God that we were 
there.’ ”” \ 
Tennyson, in Locksley Hall, Sixty Years after. 


13. “ Conscious Iwas not.” Tasting with his eyes the face 
of Beatrice, he moved unconsciously, but with incredible 
swiftness, to this planet. 

20. “Some swift, some slow.” The degree of rapidity in 
the motions of the spirits, as well as the degree of effulgence 
to which they attain, is in proportion to the degree in which 
they comprehend the vision of the Deity: 

** Its brightness is as is our fervor’s heat, 
Our fervor as our vision, and this last 


As it on unearned grace hath holding fast.” 
Canto xiv. 40. 


34. “ Princes.” “Principi.”” The Principalities govern the 
sphere of Venus. 

37. “ Ye.” Dante gives here the first line of the first of 
his canzones commented on in the Convito. 

49. “It spoke.’ The spirit of Charles Martel of Hungary, _ 
one of Dante’s special friends and benefactors. He lived 
but a short time, 1272-1295, dying at the age of twenty-three. 
By right of his mother, Mary, Queen of Hungary, he succeeded 
to the crown of Hungary, but as he did not survive his father, 
Charles the Second, King of Naples, he did not become 
invested with the sovereignty of Naples. He should not be 
confounded with the Charles Martel of the eighth century. 

58, 59, 61, 66. “ Zhe Rhone... Sorgue... Ausonian 
horn... Trinacria.” Portions of Provence and Sicily are 
here mentioned, which were under the jurisdiction of Charles’s 
father, and which Charles would have inherited had he sur- 
vived his father. . 

66. “ That dominion.” . Hungary. 

70. “ Typhous.” 

‘*Then the Earth, 


In birth nefandous Cceus’ life produced 
And Iapetus and Typhoais dire, 


246 | Paradiso. 





Notes. 





And that bad brotherhood which joined in league 
To abolish heaven.”’ 
First Georgic, 278. 


* No face thee terrifies, Typhoaus’ self 
Not e’en, in arms, in arms, arrayed ’gainst heaven.” 
Song of the Salii in honor of Hercules, Lighth A£neid, 298. 


72. “Charles and Rudolph.” Charles of Anjou, his grand- 
father, King of Naples and Sicily, and, after the Sicilian Ves- 
pers, of Naples alone; Rudolph, Erhperor of Germany, his 
father-in-law. Both of these we have met in the Twentieth 
Canto of the Purgatorio. 

73. “lil rulership ... Palermo.” An outline of the 
remote and proximate causes of the revolt known as the 
Sicilian Vespers will be remembered, as in the notes to the 
Nineteenth Canto of the Inferno. 

76. “ My brother.” Robert, misled by an impecunious and 
greedy Catalonian cabinet, and preyed upon by mercenary 
troops. 

120. “ Your master.’ Aristotle, styled the “ Master of 
those who know.” 

130, 131. “ Jacob... Esau.” “And the boys grew: and 
Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob 
was a plain man, dwelling in tents.” 

131. “ Quirinus.” Romulus, of such obscure parentage 
that his origin was attributed to Mars. 

147. “ Sermons.’ Another allusion, it is supposed, to 
Charles’s brother, Robert, King of Sicily, better fitted, accord- 
ing to Villani and the annotator of the Monte Cassino Codex, 
for a pulpit than a throne. 








ee 


CANTO NINTH. 


ARGUMENT: 


Still: in the sphere of Venus. Dante has discourse with 
Cunizza, a society lady, and Folco, a troubadour-poet, 
afterwards bishop, who successively impart to Dante the 
history of their several careers. Folco announces to him 
that Rahab, the harlot, who concealed Joshua’s spies on 
her house-top, is a bright spirit, having been the first re- 
leased by Christ on his ascension into heaven. The Canto 
closes with reflections on the political and religious affairs 
of Italy. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Dante. Charles Martel. Cunizza. 
Folco. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Principalities of the Heavens. 
Beatrice. Rahab. 


As soon as thy loved Charles, O Clemence fair, 

Had me enlightened, he me made to know 

The treacheries foul his heirs should undergo, 
But said: “ Say naught, the circling years let fare.” 

So I can only say that o’er your wrongs 

Shall sing the sorrowing Muses pitying songs. 
And now that saintly lamp had turned again 

Unto the Sun that fills it its clear face 

As to the all-sufficient source of grace. 


248 Paradiso. 





Added Lustre. 





Ah, souls deceived, and creatures weak as vain, 10 
Who from such good so turn away your hearts, 
Adoring that which emptiness sole imparts! 

And lo! another splendor now advanced, 

And of its will to please me ample sign 
Gave in its added lustre all divine. 

The eyes of Beatrice which upon me glanced 
Gave, as before, to me their kind assent 
To that whereon my kindled mind was bent. 


And “O,” I cried, “‘my wish grant swift reward, 19 
Thou blessed spirit, and proof give thou to me 
- That thoughts of mine I can reflect in thee!” 
Whereat the light wherewith I sought accord 
From its envelopment, whence before it sung, 
Thus used, as one in kind acts glad, the tongue: 
“Within that part of Italy’s land depraved 
That ’twixt Rialto lies and fountain-heads 
Whence Brenta flows and Piava’s torrent spreads, 


* Rises a hill not high whence madly waved 28 
A torch which on the suffering plain below 
Made of its inroads fiery traces glow. 

The same root life gave both to me and it; 
Cunizza was I called, and here am blest 
Since by the splendor of this star oppressed ; 

And gladly penalty other I remit, 

And am not grieved that here my crown doth 
gleam ; | 

Strong thence your vulgar ones my mind may 
deem. 


—— 





Canto 1X. 249 


Like a Gem. 








“Was given this lamp who unto us most near _37 
Shines like a gem, serene and precious fame, 
And e’er shall fade upon the earth his name, 

Shall five times over pass the hundredth year. 
And should not man at excellence aim below, 
Since thence he may bliss here eternal know? 

But thus thinks not the present multitude base 
*Twixt the Adicé and Tagliamento scourged, 
Yet not thereby to needed penitence urged. 


“And soon will Padua on Vicenza’s race 46 
Bring doom for duties wholly laid aside, 
And tinge with blood her marshy waters wide ; 
And where the Silé and Cagnano creep, 
One lords it, and his shameless head holds high, 
To make whose net now busy shuttles fly. 
There Feltro, too, an impious crime shall weep, 
Her pastor’s guilt, which shall so monstrous be 
That ne’er for such heard prisoner Malta’s key. 


“Large would the vat be which the blood would 
hold 55 
Ferrara furnished, and for rest would pray 
He who its contents ounce by ounce would weigh, 
Whereof this courteous clergyman, controlled 
By partisan spirit, shall a present make, 
One which doth of the country’s ways partake. 
Our eyes are upward to high mirrors bent, 
Thrones, as ye call them, whence reflected shine 
God’s judgments; these thus make our speech 
divine.” 


250 Paradiso. 





A Ruby fine. 





Ceased she, and seemed on other thoughts intent, 6, 
And by the wheel whereon she came seemed 
turned 
T’wards other scenes in bliss for which she 
yearned. 
The other joy, to me already known, 
Became a thing of splendor, as is seen 
A ruby fine when strikes the sun its sheen. 
Above, delight is in effulgence shown, 
As on the earth in laughter; but below, 
The saddening mind the shade makes darker grow. 


“God seeth all; on Him thine eyes repose, 73 

Blest spirit,” I said, “so that his holy will 

Thy conscious eyes and mind must ever fill; 
Why then unto my longings brings no close 

That voice of thine which glad heaven ever makes 

With music which from those blest ardors breaks, 
Which cowl themselves with their six wings out- 

spread, . 
I would not thee compel so long to plead, 
If I inthee’d were, as thou art imme’d.” 


“The valley of waters which is farthest led,” 82 
Forthwith his words began “(that sea alone 
Except, whose waves around the earth are thrown), 

Between discordant shores, against the sun 
Extends so far that it meridian gains 
Where is its wont to wash the horizon’s plains. 

I for my home did that vale’s margin own 
’Twixt Ebro’s flood and Magra’s short career 
That Genoa ’twixt and Tuscany seeks the mere. 








Canto 1X. 251 


Good from Evil. 








« Sunset and sunrise are full near the same 9r 
To that my city and to Buggia, spot 
Where blood once made its crimson harbor hot. 
Folco that people called me who my name 
Knew well; and I of this orb bore the seal, 
Which makes me now its heavenly impress feel ; 
For more did Belus’ daughter never burn 
In wrong Sichzeus t’wards and Creusa dead 
Than I, so long as youth’s locks crowned my 
head, 


“Nor yet that Rhodopean made to turn 100 
Demophoén t’wards, nor yet Alcides held 
By Iole’s charms which all his heart compelled. 
Yet here is no repenting; smile we here, 
Not at the fault which ne’er annoys the thought, 
But at the power which good from evil brought. 
Rejoiced we see the skill that makes all clear 
With such effectual working, and we know 
The good whereby this world turns that below. 


“ But that I may not any wishes slight 109 
Born to thee in this sphere, and that thou bear 
Hence answer thereunto, I further fare: 

Thou wouldst inquire who is within this light 
That here beside me sparkles as the beam 
Casting in limpid waves its brilliant gleam. 

There rests within it, be it to thee known, 

The soul of Rahab, to our sphere assigned. 
Her merits here our highest honors find. _ 


252 Paradiso. 





Boniface. 





“Into this orb, where ends the shadowy cone 8 

Cast by your world, first soul of all to rise, 

She in Christ’s Triumph mounted to the skies, 
Full meet it was to leave her in some heaven 

E’en as of that vast victory high a palm 

Which he achieved with one and the other palm, 
Because to Joshua’s first great deed was given, 

Within the Holy Land, her potent aid, 

Events which almost from the Pope’s mind fade. 


“Thy city, plant of him who madly first aay 
Upon his Maker turned his back, whom sore 
For his ambition’s fruits all men deplore, 

Brings forth and spreads about the flower accursed ; © 
Sheep thus and lamb alike have widely strayed, 
Since of the Shepherd it a wolf hath made. 

For this to the Evangel and the Doctors lent 
Is light attention, and of them instead 
Show soiling thumb-marks the Decretals read. 


“On this the Pope and cardinals are intent, 136 
Their meditations ne’er to Nazareth stray, 
Where Gabriel shone in heavenly ray on ray. 

But soon Mount Vatican’s haunts, and parts elect 
Besides of Rome, which have a cemetery been ~ 
To Peter’s soldiery, shall deliverance win 

From the adulterer, and Rome stand erect.” 


NOTES TO THE NINTH CANTO. 


1. “Charles . . . Clemence.”’ The reference is to Charles 
Martel of the preceding Canto. A controversy exists among 











Canto IX. 253 





Notes. 





the commentators as to whether Clemence was the wife or 
daughter. The conclusion is deemed a safe one that it was 
the daughter, and for these reasons: the wife was long since 
dead, and the Poet is here addressing the fostertty of Charles. 
The use of the word “ Charles” instead of “father” may be 
explained by the needs under which the Poet labored of con- 
necting, in an intelligible manner, this Canto with the one 
preceding it, and of using a word which would mean more 
than father—would do the same service as the more accurate 
legal term “ the common ancestor.” 

3. “ Treacheries.”’ The allusion is to the wrong done to 
Charles’s son in 1309, nine years after the assumed date of 
the Poem, in dispossessing him of the sovereignty of Naples 
in favor of his uncle Robert, Duke of Calabria. 

7. “ That saintly lamp.” Charles Martel. 

13. “ Another splendor.” Cunizza. This lady was the sister 
of the ferocious Azzolino, or Ezzolino, of the Twelfth Canto 
of the Inferno. Dante acquits her of any taint except what 
Purgatory could cleanse, but she had, according to Rolandino, 
as quoted by Muratori, viii. 173, a sufficiently remarkable 
career. According to this authority, she was first married to 
Richard of Saint Boniface; then she had an intrigue with 
one Sordello; then she wandered about with a soldier of 
Treviso, named Bonius, “taking much solace,” says the old 
chronicler, “and spending much money,” —multa habendo 
solatia, et maximas faciendo expensas. After the death of 
Bonius, she was married to a nobleman of Bragenzo; and 
she married, later, a gentleman of Verona. 

The Ottimo says: “This lady lived lovingly in dress, song, 
and sport; but consented not to any impropriety or unlawful 
act.” 

The Cambridge commentary says: “ Fuit recte filia Vene- 
ris, amorosa et vaga, erat tamen pia, benigna, et misericors, 
compatiens illis quos frater affligebat.” 

28,29. “A hill ...atorch.” The hill the site of a castle, 
that of Romano; the torch Azzolino, born there. Before his 
birth his mother is said to have had a dream similar to that 


254 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





of Hecuba before the birth of Paris, that she would bring 
forth a torch which would set all Ilium in flames. How near 
the dream of the Italian mother was prophetical may be 
judged by what history says of her son: “ Ezzelino, son-in- 
law of the emperor, placed himself at the head of the 
Ghibelline faction, deluged Italy with blood, and won the 
deserved epithet of Ferocious, applied by general execra- 
tion.” Darras, History of the Catholic Church, iii. 362. 
36. “ Strong.” 
*‘ Che forse parria forte al vostro vulgo.” 

37, 40,93. “ This lamp... five times over... Folco.” 
The spirit of Folco, or Foulques of Marseilles, a Troubadour 
of fame, and promised by Dante a continuance of fame for 
five hundred years, a promise which Dante has more than 
kept. He seems to have originated in Marseilles, and to 
have become bishop of Marseilles or Toulouse, after death 
had removed the companions of his earlier and gayer life, 
and, among others, the lady patroness of his songs. 

43. “ Multitude.” The district indicated embraces the 
Cities of Feltro, Treviso, Padua, and Vicenza. : 

46. “ Padua... Vicenza.” ‘This seems to be a prediction 
of the events of 1312, when the Paduans revolted against 
Ghibelline authority sustained by the Emperor Henry the 
Seventh, deposed his vicar, and made a massacre of the 
Ghibellines. In 1314 the Vicentines under Can Grande 
turned the tide of affairs, and at the battle of Bacchiglione 
administered a severe chastisement to the Paduans. Dante, 
probably, wrote the prophecy in the text after 1312, and prior 
to 1314. 

49. “ Gilé and Cagnano.” Rivers of Treviso. 

50. “One... net.” Riccardo da Camino, assassinated in 
Treviso while playing at chess. Muratori describes him as a 
son of the good Gherardo, and brother of the beautiful Gaia 
of the Sixteenth Canto of the Purgatorio. He succeeded 
Gherardo in the lordship of Treviso, but his love adventures 
were carried on so openly and flagrantly that he was taken 
in the “net” of an outraged husband. 


Canto 1X. 255 





a Notes. 





52, 54, 60. “ Feliro... Malta... country’s ways.” A 
bishop of Feltro, afterwards beaten to death with sandbags, 
basely surrendered to the Guelphs certain Ghibelline gentle- 
men of Ferrara who had taken refuge with him, and who, in 
consequence of his bad faith, were put to death. Malta was 
a prison on the shores of Lake Bolsena where political 
prisoners were incarcerated. There Pope Boniface the 
Eighth imprisoned the Abbot of Monte Cassino for permit- 
ting the fugitive pontiff, Celestine the Fifth, to escape from 
his custody. No wonder that Dante expresses his horror of 
a district containing such cities, and that he paraphrases the 
exclamation of Cicero: 


**O tempora, O mores! ”’ 


59. “A present.” The “present” which this “courteous 
clergyman” made was that of the blood of his guests to 
his partisan friends, the Guelphs. 

62. “ Reflected.” Reflected upon the minds of the celestial 
denizens from the Source of All Light as mirror reflects light 
to mirror. Thus are mirrored upon the minds of the celestial 
denizens all the knowledge, all the:judgments, of God. So 
see Canto xi. line 20. Thrones are here spoken of, which, 
as we have seen, control the sphere of Saturn, inhabited by 
the spirits of holy hermits, and devoted to asceticism. 

67. “ The other joy.” Folco. 

81. “lf L inthee’d were, as thou art immed.” That is, were 
I as much thought of by you as you are by me. The com- 
mentators treat this form of phraseology as a freak of Dante. 
This is a mistaken idea, however; the form, although now 
obsolete, is older than Dante. That Dante’s use of it is free 
from affectation is shown in his use of it as applied to the 
Supreme Being, this Canto, just above, at line 73: 


“Tuo veder s’ inluia,” 
(Thy sight in-Him’s itself) 
‘On Him thine eyes repose.’’ 


Other instances of it have been given in the notes to the 
Fourth Canto, line 28. The dictionaries wrongly interpret 


256 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





the phrase. The method, and defence, of the phrase are 
found in the word “zwmure” (in muro, within a wall or 
enclosure). 

79. “Six wings.’ The “blest ardors” who so “cowl them- 
selves” are the Seraphim seen by the prophet, /sazah vi. 2: 
“ Above it stood the Seraphims: each one had six wings; 
with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered 
his feet, and with twain he did fly.” 

83. “ Zhat sea alone.” The Mediterranean. 

85. “ Discordant shores.” Europe and Africa, discordant 
in creed: Christian and Mahometan. 

86. “ Meridian ... horizon.” That is, that, from the Pillars 
of Hercules to the shores of the Levant, the Mediterranean 
passes through degrees of longitude which make its waves 
wash the Orient. The actual number of degrees is forty-two. 
Forty-eight more would carry the point into the mountains 
and plateaus of Thibet. Some of the commentators imagine 
that Dante supposes the Mediterranean to cover minety de- 
grees of longitude, but Dante was much too good a geogra- 
pher to make such a mistake as this, and the fair construc- 
tion of Dante’s words seems to be the one here followed: 

‘¢La dove I’ horizonte pria far suole.” 
This construction would carry the eastern point beyond the 
shore into the plains and mountains of the Orient, the 
sources of the morning sun, the “usual” place of the eastern 
“horizon.” 

88. “ My home.” Marseilles, just half way between the 
Ebro in Spain and the Magra in Italy. The river Magra is 
one of “short career,” that is, a little river. 

92. “ Buggia.” A port on the African coast opposite 
Marseilles. It is called by the French, Bougze. 

93- “ Harbor.” Made hot and crimson by the blood shed 
in the siege of Marseilles, invested by Czesar, on land by a 
force under Tribonius, on the sea by a fleet under Brutus. 

100. “ That Rhodopean.” Phyllis of Thrace, called the 
Rhodopean because a resident of the region near Mount 
Rhodope, the “ embowered”’ Rhodope of the Fifth Pastoral, 


Canto LX. 257 





Notes. 





the “‘ steep ” Rhodope of the Third Georgic, and the “ tower- 
ing ” Rhodope of the Fourth. 

tol. “‘ Alcides.” Hercules was so enamored of Iole that 
he sat among her maidens, spinning, like them, with the 
distaff. And after all his assiduous solicitude, and after 
winning her. fairly, as he claimed, in an archery contest, he 
was denied this daughter of a king. 

** Quem non mille ferz, quem non Stheneleius hostis, 
Non potuit Juno vincere, vincit Amor.” 
; Ovip, Heroides, Ep. ix. 25. 

116. “ Rahab.” She concealed the spies of Joshua among 
the stalks of flax on the roof of her house. oshua ii. 6. 

118. “ Zhe shadowy cone cast by your world.’ The Ptole- 
maic theory extended the shadow of the earth so far as to 
include the sphere of Venus. This is the meaning of the 
phrase in exact science. The allegorical meaning of the 
phrase, as it has been well defined by King John of Saxony, 
is that in the three lower spheres of Paradise, those of the 
Moon, Mercury, and Venus, are found souls who have been 
prevented from attaining at once the higher spheres of beati- 
tude through the earthly failings of inconstancy, ambition, 
and unregulated love. 

119, 122, 123. “ First soul...apalm...one and the other 
palm.” 

“Alma... palma... palma.” With each sacred “ palm” 
of Christ pierced by the nails of the crucifixion, Dante will 
rhyme only “palm,” the palm of victory and “alma” the re- 
deemed soul. And Dante’s reverence for the sacred name 
of “Christ” makes him refrain from using it in the Inferno 
and even in the Purgatorio; and in the Paradiso he will only 
permit it to rhyme with itself. See the instances collected in 
the notes to the Fourth Canto of the Inferno. 

Of plays upon words the Scriptures themselves furnish 
instances, which will readily occur to the student of divine 
truths. 

121. “ Full meet it was to leave her in some Heaven.” As 
Christ ascended higher, to his Father in the Empyrean, he 


258 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





left Rahab in the lower Heaven consecrated to those who 
have struggled with love excessive, love unregulated. 

127. “ Thy city.” Florence. 

127. “ Him.” Satan. 

130. “ The flower.” The golden coin of Florence called 
the florin. The notes to the Thirtieth Canto of the Inferno 
have already given some of the data in the history of the 
coins of Florence. “ The first gold florin,” says Mr. Hall, in 
The London Numismatic Chronicle for 1886, p. 3, “was struck 
at Florence in the year 1252. It has on one side a lily, with 
the legend ‘ Florentia,’ and on the other the patron of Flor- 
ence. The extensive commerce of the Florentines caused 
this coin to be very widely circulated, and, before long, it was 
reproduced throughout Europe ... This type was retained 
by Florence for three centuries.” 

By special permission of the authorities of the British 
Museum, casts for the use of this work have been taken of 
such a florin as Mr. Hall describes, which is, of course, of the 
time of Dante. 





133. “ For this.” For money. 

134. “ Zhe Decretals.” Letters sent by the early popes to 
different churches on matters of church organization or goy- 
ernment or discipline. These, being afterwards collected, 
governed the ecclesiastical courts in matters under their 
cognizance, which, in earlier times, embraced questions of 
matrimony and divorce, inheritances, estates, and crimes, and 
of course, controversies originating among the clergy them- 
selves on the whole circle of subjects falling under ecclesi- 
astical cognizance. Recognized as the Body of the Law 
Canonical, “ Corpus Furis Canonici,” are the five books ap- 


Canto LX. 259 





Notes. 





proved by Gregory the Ninth in 1234, a sixth added by Boni- 
face the Eighth in 1298, the constitutions issued by Clement 
the: Fifth in 1308, and the additional decrees of John the 
Twenty-second, of the date of 1317. Later pontiffs have, 
from time to time, issued still further decrees. This body of 
laws was, therefore, taking form while the Commedia was in 
progress, and Dante intimates that the papal court of his 
time was unduly absorbed in the study of it. 

136. “ On this.” On money. 

139. “ Mount Vatican.” The commentators usually say 
this prediction has reference to the death of Boniface and 
the removal of the papal see to Avignon. But this construc- 
tion seems to narrow unduly the significance of a very noble 
wish that Rome may be freed from violence which makes it 
a charnel-house, and corruption which causes it to bow its 
head in disgrace. 


CANTO TENTH. 


ARGUMENT: 


The sphere of the Sun is now reached, the seat of the fourth 
Heaven, the abode of the spirits of the theologians, and 
placed under the control of the Powers of the Heavens. 
There Beatrice appears ineffably bright ; there voices of 
incredible sweetness sing the praises of God; and there 
Saint Thomas of Aquin favors Dante with a discourse in 
which he points out to him spirits of this sphere to the 
number of eleven, and, counting Saint Thomas, to the num- 
ber of twelve. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Voices of the Angels., Voices of the 
theologians. Saint Thomas. Dante. Beatrice. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Powers of the Heavens. Albert 
the great of Cologne. Gratian of Bologna. Peter Lom- 
bard. Solomon. Saint Dionysius. Boéthius. Saint 
Isidore. The Venerable Bede. Richard of Saint Victor. 
Sigebert. ; 


Lookinc upon his Son with all the love 
Which breathes from each eternally, that Power, 
Primal, ineffably Good, all that each hour 

The mind or eye contemplates, throned above, 
Created; and with order such that none 
_Exist, not by its pleasing workings won. 

Raise, then, O Reader, to the lofty wheels, 
With me, thine eyes, and let them that point — 


greet 
Where doth one motion’s path the other’s meet. 


~ Canto X. 261 


The Laws of the Planets. 








And there observe thou how creation feels 10 
Joy at the Master’s art, whose inward thought 
So loves it, by his eye ’t is ever sought. 

Behold how thus oblique the circle tends 
Wherein the planets are on errands whirled 
To wield their healthful influence o’er the world ; 

Wherefore their pathway through the heavens thus 

bends, 
Else were much heavenly virtue vainly linked, 
And here on earth well-nigh all power extinct. 


If from this fixed line distant more or less 19 
Were the departure, great would be the fault 
Earth zones would plague and heaven’s ethereal 

vault. 

Now, Reader! on thy bench thy soul possess 
In quietude yet, and muse upon the feast 
Wherein, toil left, thy joy shall be increased. 

Lo! I have set before thee, thyself feed ; 
Henceforth the theme whereof I, missioned, write 
Asks all my care it worthily to indite. 


That one of nature’s ministers whom doth heed 28 

The rest as greatest, and who prints heaven’s 

power 

On earth, where measures off his light each hour 
We call our own, was in his orbit wide 

So joined with other circles, speeding on 

Where now, each day, he earlier sheds his dawn ; 
And I was with him; but to me denied 

My consciousness my rising, save as thought 

First seeks the mind ere it to form is brought. 


262 Paradiso. 





Inconceivable Brilliancy of Light. 





And Beatrice, she, who to move on is seen 37 
From good to better, and with flight so swift 
That slower fleet time itself along doth drift, 

How her own light shone forth with ray serene, 
And how she in the Sun shone, now my sphere, 
Which light, not color, there would make appear, 

I, though I call on genius, art, and skill, 

Before the imagination cannot place ; 
Believe ; and long ye for its distant trace! 


And if our feeble fancy cannot fill 46 
Such lofty heights, it seems no wonder; run 
Can fancy ne’er beyond the dazzling Sun. 

Such, in this place, was the fourth family blest 
Of that high Father, who it ever sates, 

Showing herein how breathes he and creates. 

And Beatrice, ‘Thanks, give thanks,” thus me ad- 

dressed, 
“ Unto the Sun of Angels him whose grace 
Hath brought thee the perceptible here to face!” 


And ne’er was heart of mortal so disposed 55 
To worship, nor, with all its gratitude deep, . 
To give itself to God, did it so leap, 

As, at those words, did mine, and, wholly closed 
All thought of Beatrice, thus eclipsed, I merged 
With His my being so by His bounties urged. 

Nor this displeased her, but thereat she smiled, 
And of her laughing eyes the splendor broke 
My trance of prayer, and me from rapture woke. 


as lO 
Lott ae 
. ., 
. + 


d 


Canto X. 263 





Triumphant, vivid. 





I lamps there many saw who round us filed 64 
Triumphant, vivid, and with voices sweet 
That than their lustre even seemed more meet. 
Latona’s daughter thus is sometimes seen 
Surrounded, when the teeming air her zone 
A circle makes, beyond her bosom thrown. 
Within heaven’s court, whence I return, the sheen 
Of many jewels shines, so fair, so choicé 
No speech of earth can give their radiance voice. 


Of such were they who sung; who takes not 
wings, 73 
Wings wonted there to fly, may from the dumb 
Expect words fitting messages such to come. 
Like unto stars around the poles in rings 
Of radiance, when those burning suns, with song, 
Had thus three times around us thrown their 
throng, 
They ladies seemed, not from the dance released, 
But stopping short, listening in silent quest, 
To catch the air, the melody’s new behest. 


And from within one, this I heard: “Increased 82 
By loving true love is, and when grace rays 
Throughout thy soul wherein its radiance plays, 

And is there multiplied. with splendor such 
That it conducts thee upward by that stair 
Where not reascending none doth downward fare, 

He who his vial of wine should from thy touch 
Withhold, nor heed thy thirst, would as Con- 

strained 
Be.as the water not towards ocean drained. 


264 Paradiso. 





Saint Thomas of Aquin. 





“It would thee please to know what flowers 
divine gI 
Make up the garland which with joy attends 
The Lady fair who heavenward strength thee 
lends. 

To be a lamb of that blest flock, ’t was mine, 
Which Dominic leads upon a path where well 
One fattens if desire to stray he quell. 

He who is nearest to me on the right 
My, brother and master was ; him claimed Cologne 
As Albert; I, Thomas, mine Aquin own. 


“If thou of all the others seek’st certain light, 100 
Upon my words await, while thy pleased eyes 
Thee of that sacred garland’s charms advise. 

That next effulgence from the smile comes forth 
Of Gratian, who both forums honored so 
That here in Paradise pleased his praises flow. 

Next soul that lights our company with his worth 
That Peter was, whose ‘ Treasure’ rich was given, 
Like the poor widow’s, freely unto heaven. 

“There shines the fifth light, that, ’mongst us so 
£ fair, 109 
Is by so great a love inspired that yearns 
Your world to know if here its splendor burns. 

Within is found the lofty mind, if there 
Be truth in truth, which knowledge deep doth hold 
Such as is of no second worthy told. 

The lustre next, while in the flesh, looked mést 
Within the nature Angels have, and saw 
Most closely all their ministry ruled by law. 








Canto X. 265 
The Elevation of the Host. 
“ And there,’ near by, another soul we boast, —u8 
He who, the Christian Centuries’ champion, 
brought 


To Augustine’s aid his active genius sought. 
Now if thy mind’s eye thou dost train along, 

From light to light pursuing still my praise, 

Thy thirst, this moment, for the’eighth one stays. 
The soul which shows the world’s deceit and wrong 

To him who listeneth well, hath now its rest, 

In seeing, sainted, every good soul blest. 


“The body whence ’t was chased forth into 
heaven cate 

In Cieldauro lies ; its woes here cease ; 
Exiled and martyred came it to this peace. 

Lo! there beyond where flames the lustre given 
To Isidore, and Bede, and Richard, he 
Who, more than man, could things ethereal see! 

This, whence to me thy look comes querying, glow 
Of his soul hath who, on high musings borne, 
Held death, for its slow progress made, in scorn. 


“ The eternal light of Sigebert ’tis whose flow 136 
On earth the Street of Straw with light illumed, 
Where, ill at ease, unhappy envy gloomed.” 

Then, as a bell that summons us, what time 
The Bride of God her matin service yields 
Unto her Spouse, for whose response she kneels, 

Wherein forth, back, resounds the holy chime, 
And ting! ting! sounds each answering note 

above, 
Until the pious spirit swells with love: 


266 Paradiso. 





Voice unto Voice. 





Sounds thus I heard the glorious wheel employ, 1s 
And voice harmonious render unto voice 
That elsewhere hath ensample none so choice 
Excepting there where triumphs endless joy. 


NOTES TO THE TENTH CANTO. 


I, 2, 5, 51. “Son... Love «.» POWEH .. » Crea... 
how.” Saint Thomas of Aquin says, in his Summa, lvi. 6: 
“ Deus pater operatus est creaturam per suum Verbum, quod 
est filius ; et per suum Amorem, qui est spiritus sanctus.” 

The Creator Spiritus is the subject and the title of a hymn 
composed by the Emperor Charlemagne, who died January 
- 28,814. The hymn will ever be a favorite one in the reper- 
tory of sacred music. It begins: 

‘© Veni, Creator Spiritus, 
Mentes tuorum visita, 
Imple superna gratia 
Quz tu creasti pectora.” 

8, 32. “ That point...so joined with other circles.” Allu- 
sions to the occurrence of the vernal equinox, near which, as 
we saw in the First Canto, the sun now is. The “motions” 
here referred to are those which, bringing the zodiac and 
the celestial equator into apparent conjunction, “join” them 
“with other circles.” 

Dante, at this point of time, supposes himself to stand on 
the ecliptic, and to be, therefore, between the equatorial and 
zodiacal planes, and he requests the Reader to direct, with 
him, his eyes to the point of intersection of the three, ecliptic, 
zodiac, and equator. 

13. “ Obligue the circle.” The circle of the zodiac, which 
intersects the equator, at an angle of 32° 28’. The angle of 
the ecliptic with the equator is only 23° 28/. 

27. “ All my care.” He ascends to the sphere of the Sun, 
the region of theological light and learning. He leaves 
behind him every trace and shadow of worldly things. The 
theme demands his utmost solicitude. 





Canto X. 267 


Notes. 








29. “ Greatest.” The Sun. 

33. “ Zarlier.” That is, after the vernal equinox, when, 
the Sun rising earlier every day, the days are lengthening. 

34. “ And I was with him.” Of course this leads imme- 
diately to a mention and description of Beatrice, because it is 
by tasting her countenance with his eyes that he ascends, 
that he becomes, like Glaucus, a God. 
~ 67, 68. “ Latona’s daughter ... zone.” The halo round 
the Moon Dante declares somewhat resembles the indescrib- 
ably beautiful envelopment of the beatified spirits. 

79. “ The dance.” Doctors dancing in Paradise, like David 
before the ark. 

82. “And from within one.’ From within one of the lus- 
tres. The spirit is that of Saint Thomas of Aquin. 

86. “ That stair.” The ladder in Jacob’s dream. 

88. “My vial of wine.” That is, love begets love, your 
ardor increases my ardor towards you, and I could no more 
refuse you the use of my flask than water can.refuse to run 
down-hill. 

99. “ Albert.” Albert “ the Great,” a Dominican, belongs 
to the thirteenth century. A prodigy of learning and in- 
dustry, he justly earns the title, besides that of “the Great,” 
of the “ Universal Doctor.” He, first of all theologians, 
reconciled the teachings of Christ with those of Aristotle; 
and from him Dante has his doctrine of Free-Will as the 
basis of Ethics. 

99. “ Zhomas.” Saint Thomas of Aquin, the “ Angelic 
Doctor,” also a Dominican, and the leading name in theolog- 
ical science. Died March 7, 1274. He was thus a contem- 
porary of Dante for the first nine years of the life of the Poet. 

‘When Longfellow visited Monte Cassino, he had before 
his eyes the “old Volscian town” wearing its ‘‘ crown of 
splendor” as the birthplace of Juvenal. ‘“ Doubled the 
splendor is,” he sings : 

* Doubled the splendor is, that in its streets 
The Angelic Doctor as a school-boy played, 


And dreamed perhaps the dreams, that he repeats 
In ponderous folios for scholastics made.’’ 


268 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





104. “Gratian ... both forums.” A Franciscan, author 
of a Digest of Canon Law. His knowledge of Civil Law, 
too, was so extensive that “ both forums,” the civil and the 
ecclesiastical, paid him deference. 

107. “ Peter Lombard.” Author of a work called The 
Book of Sentences. Dante’s allusion is to a phrase in the 
preface: “I desire to contribute, like the poor widow, my 
mite to the treasury of the Lord.” 

109. “ Zhe Fifth.” Solomon. “‘ Behold, I have done 
according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an 
understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before 
thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.’” 1 
Kings iii. 12. 

111. “ Lf here.” The point as to whether Solomon had 
attained a seat in Paradise was a mooted one among theolo- 
gians. 

115. “ Next.” Dionysius the Areopagite, converted by 
Saint Paul: “ And when they heard of the resurrection of the 
dead, some mocked; and others said: We will hear thee 
again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them ” 
[the Athenians]. “ Howbeit, certain men clave unto him, 
and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite 
and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.” To 
Dionysius were ascribed writings which probably belong to 
some theologian four centuries later than his time. 

119, 120, “ Zhe Christian Centuries champion ... Au- 
gustine’s aid.” Paul Orosius is supposed to be here meant. 
In his youth he visited Saint Augustine in Africa. His work, 
The Seven Books of Histories, was a vindication of Christian- 
ity, and its preparation Saint Augustine is supposed to have 
requested as in aid of the purpose of his work, 7he City of God, 
He survived Saint Augustine. They both date as of the be- 
ginning of the fifth century. 

125. “ The soul which shows.” Boéthius, a Roman poli- 
tician and philosopher of the early part of the sixth century. 
Gibbon says of his work, Zhe Consolations of Philosophy, that 
it is “a golden volume not unworthy of the leisure of Plato 


Canto X. 269 





Notes. 





or Tully.” This work found a translator in Alfred, “the 
most glorious of the English kings.” 

128. “ Cieldauro.” Boéthius was persecuted to death by 
the Ostrogothic conqueror Dietrich, known as Theodoric, 
who had assumed the side of the Arians, and who could not 
tolerate the existence of his powerful and peaceful antagonist. 
The Emperor Otho the Third reverently removed his remains 
to the Church of Saint Peter of the Golden Heaven, Cielo d’ 
Auro, in Pavia, an edifice now neglected. 

131. “ Zsidore ... Beda... Richard.” Saint Isidore, a 
learned Spanish prelate, 572-635. 

Beda, or Bede, an Anglo-Saxon monk, 672-735. About the 
ninth century he began to be called “the Venerable.” He 
was a voluminous writer of ecclesiastical works, and, like 
Orosius, was honored by having King Alfred for his trans- 
lator. 

Richard of Saint Victor was a monk in the monastery of 
Saint Victor near Paris. He was distinguished as a writer 
of theological treatises, and belongs to the twelfth century. 

134, 136, 137. “ His soul... Sigebert.. . Street of Straw.” 
Sigebert, or Sigier, belongs to the latter portion of the thir- 
teenth century. He wrote and lectured on Logic in the 
Street of Straw, Rue du Fouarre, formerly Rue de l’Ecole, 
in Paris. Dante seems to have entertained for him a rap- 
turous admiration, and it is probable that he attended his 
lectures. The commentators have heretofore concurred. in 
making him a native of Courtrai, but Mr. Paget Toynbee, in 
an article in the Academy, vol. xxix. p. 328, maintains, on 
good grounds, that the Sigier of Courtrai was another per- 
son, and that the Sigier of our text, and of our Poet, be- 
longed to Brabant. 

139, 140, 143. “Bell... matin service... answering 
note.” Dante here describes the sounding, by the bell in the 
church tower, of the hour of mass; the humble attitude of 
the worshippers; the bells rung, in the sanctuary, at the ele- 
vation of the host; and the responsive notes, from the tower, 


‘sounding the angelical salutation. 


CANTO ELEVENTH. 
ARGUMENT : 


Saint Thomas of Aquin, a Dominican, rehearses to Dante 
the praises of Saint Francis of Assisium. 
Still the Heaven of the Sun. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Dante. Saint Thomas. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Powers of the Heavens. Albert. 
Gratian. Peter. Solomon. Dionysius. Orosius. Boéthius. 
Isidore. Bede. Richard. Sigebert. Beatrice. 


O SENSELESS care ’round busy mortals spun, 
How inconclusive are the arguments light 
That hinder thy clogged wings from loftier flight ! 

Laws one pursued, and medicine’s methods one; 
And one the priesthood followed ; and one force 
Or sophistry took as basis of his course, 

In theft expert, or in affairs of state; 
And one to sensual pleasures low was wed ; 
While one his hours in ease unfruitful led ; 


Canto XT, 271 





The Mirror of God. 





While I, made free from all these burdens great, 10 
With Beatrice welcomed into spheres divine, 
Found such exceeding heights of glory mine! 

And now the throng that had been circled took _ 
Its former shape, and those lights seemed as seem 
In candlesticks fixed the candle’s golden beam ; 

And saw I t’wards me, with more luminous look, 

A smile directing, that effulgent one 

Who now renewed his speech so well begun : 


“ F’en as the Eternal Light doth me illume, 19 
So, looking up into its mirror clear, 
Your thoughts to me therein divulged appear. 
Thou art in doubt, and wouldst in larger room 
And more extended phrase, I should restate, 
That with thy sense it may more readily mate, 
What I have just now said to thee: ‘Where well 
One fattens,’ and ‘Is of no second told ;’ 
’T is need that here distinction I unfold. 


“The Providence high whose counsel wise doth 
quell 28 
Created vision all, whene’er it strives 
To seek the deep foundations of our lives, 
Unto the end her own Belov’d might meet 
The Bride of Him who, uttering a loud cry, 
Espoused her with his precious blood, whereby 
She might more gladly Him, and faithfully, greet, 
Two Princes did ordain to be her pride, 
And who might her attend on either side. 


272 Paradiso. 





Two Princes. 





** Was all seraphic in his fervor one; 37 
The other from his wisdom shed on earth 
A light cherubic, both of mighty worth. 
Of one let me now speak, the same is done 
For both, because let either be the theme, 
One object both held in regard supreme. 
Tupino’s rill betwixt and waves that roll 
Down blest Ubaldo’s chosen hill, there hangs 
Rich slope of mountain high, whence chilly pangs 
% 


“ And warm alternate seek Perugia’s goal 46 
Through Porta Sole, and, behind it, folk 
Gualdine and Noceran mourn their burdening 

yoke. 7 

Born on that slope where most its steepness yields, 
Upon the world a sun arose, which bright 
Shone as that one from Ganges bringing light ; 

Therefore should one who paints Assisian fields 
The Orient say, would he describe the place 
Where rose to sight this brilliant orb of grace. 


“Not far his beams had sought their upward path ss 
When from his mighty virtue there began 
To scintillate rays that blessed the race of man. 
For gained his radiant youth his father’s wrath, 
Because a Dame he sought to whom doth close 
As unto death the gate that pleasure knows ; 
And ’fore the spiritual court, in lowliness pure, 
And in his father’s right, was to her wed, 
Her whom he loved the more, the more time sped. 


Canto XT. 273 





Saint Francis of Assisium. 





*« Bereaved of her first husband, scorned, obscure, 64 
One thousand and one hundred years and more 
She waited till this suitor sought her door. 

Nought had it her availed that not the tone 
Of Czesar’s voice which terror bore abroad, 

Nor hers nor Amyclas’ soul had overawed ; 

Nought had availed her dauntless ardor shown 
When Mary stood below enwrapped in woes ; 
And on the cross with Christ himself she rose. 


“ But, darkening terms no longer to employ, 73 
My speech diffuse these lovers”names shall give: 
Francis and Poverty, one for aye to live. 

Their sweet accord, their lives of wondering joy, 
Upon them made the thoughts of men to pause, 
And, in high souls, of holy thoughts were cause ; 

So much so that, for this so sacred race, 

First pious Bernard bared his feet and ran, 
And deemed himself too slow this scrupulous — 
man. 


“O wealth uncounted! Good beyond all trace ! 82 
Egidius fleet, and now Sylvester, stride, 
The Bridegroom following, charmed they by his 
Bride. 
Then takes that father, master, saint, his way, 
He and his Lady, and that family, now 
The halter round them girding, and their vow ; 
-Nor on his brow did feeble cowardice weigh 
At being Peter Bernadone’s son, 
Nor for the keen contempt his life had won ; 


274. Paradiso. 





The Stigmata. 





“But royally now his purpose hard he brought 
’Fore Innocent’s see, who first gave from his hand 
The seal upon his Order, and when grand 

In numbers were the people who him sought, 

All poor, he whose sweet life and lofty aim 
The glorious songs of these high orbits claim, 

Crowned (with a garland brighter than the first) 
Was, through Honorius, by the Spirit Eterne, 
The holy purpose of this dazzling urn. 


“*And when had him for martyrdom’s gate the 
thirst . 100 

_ Before the Sultan’s court superb made preach 

Christ and the others who his precepts teach, 
And finding their raw unbelief unmixed, 

And, that he might not tarry there in vain, 

Returned to reap once more Ausonian grain, 
On the hard rock Tiber and Arno ’twixt, 

From Christ did he receive the final seal 

His form two years did wondrously reveal. 


‘And when time came that he his way must 
wend, 109 

Obedient to the summons ‘of his Lord, 

To taste of lowliness crowned the just reward, 
His most dear Lady did he then commend 

Unto his brethren, as to rightful heirs, 

And her claims urged to their assiduous cares ; 
And from her bosom the illustrious’ soul 

Would leave the earth, returning to its seat, 

And for its body deemed no bier so meet. 


Canto XI. 275 


The Flock. 








“ Think, now, the man he was, the bark 118 
Of Peter chosen o’er the seas to guide 
And teach his company all its waves to ride. 
And he our Patriarch was; and who doth mark 
_The wise commands he gives, will speedily know 
His freight, and how excels its golden glow. 
But greedy so his flock for pasturage new 
Hath grown, that it must needs astray 
Seek fields that lie at distance great away, 


** And, in proportion as those sheep the true — 27 
And him desert, and leave, so hold 
They less of milk, returning to the fold. 

And, verily, some there are who yield control, 
In fear of harm, still, to their shepherd; few 
These are; cloth for their hoods slight charges 

knew. 

Now if I have what I assumed to tell 
Delivered clearly, and thy mind hath bent 
Attentive to the thoughts I it have sent, 


“*T will serve in part thy doubtings to dispel, 136 
For thou shalt see the plant whence these chips 
fell, 
And the rebuke these words convey: ‘ Where 
well 
One fattens if desire to stray he quell.’ ” 


NOTES TO THE ELEVENTH CANTO. 


20. “ Mirror.” See Canto ix. 61. 
25, 26. “ Where well... nv second.’ The reference is to 
the preceding Canto. 


276 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





32. “ The Bride.” The Church, the Bride of Christ. 

35. “ Two Princes.” Gournerie, Christian Rome, gives the 
following account of the first meeting of these remarkable 
characters : 
~ One night, whilst Dominic was sleeping, he seemed to 
see Christ preparing to exterminate the arrogant, the disso- 
lute, the avaricious ; when suddenly the Blessed Virgin pro- 
pitiated her Divine Son by presenting to him two men: one 
of them was Dominic himself; as to the other, he knew no 
such man; but the next morning, on entering the Lateran, 
he saw the unknown man. The man was covered with rags, 
and was praying with fervor. Dominic threw himself into 
his arms, and embracing him with effusion said: ‘Thou art 
my companion ; our career, our objects, are the same, let us 
have a common home, and no enemy can prevail against us.’ 
And from that moment, continues the legend, they had 
between them but one heart and one soul in the Lord. This 
pauper, this beggar, was Saint Francis of Assisium.” 

37. “ All seraphic.” Saint Francis. 

39. “ Cherubic.” Saint Dominic. Saint Thomas of Aquin, 
i. 108, 5, says that the Seraphs represent aspiration, fervor, 
light ; the Cherubim represent the possession, and the im- 
parting, of kzowledge of divine things. 

43, 44, 46, 48. “ Zupino... Ubaldo... Perugia... 
Yoke.” Dante thus indicates the town of Ascesi, Assisi, 
Assisium, the birthplace of Saint Francis. The Perugian 
yoke oppresses the neighboring towns of Nocera and Gualdo. 

54. “ This brilliant orb of grace.’ The career of Saint 
Francis is a magnificent protest against his venal, selfish, 
arrogant, vicious age. He welcomed poverty, humiliation, 
destitution ; he even welcomed death ; for his last words are 
said to have been: “ Welcome, sister Death!” His dates 
are 1182-1226. Those of Saint Dominic are 1170-1221. 

58. “ His father’s wrath.” The wrath of his natural father, 
Peter Bernadone. 

62. “Jn his father’s right.” By permission of the bishop, 
his spiritual father. 


Canto AT. 277 





Notes. 





65. “ One thousand and one hundred.” Poverty, after the 
death of Christ, waited, for eleven hundred years and more, 
for a suitor in the person of Francis. ‘ 

68, 69. “ Cesar... Amyclas.” Like Amyclas, the fisher- 
man, at whose hut Czsar, on the shores of the Adriatic, 
knocked for means of transport across the sea, Poverty had 
remained unawed by power. 

Herein, certainly, is contained a stinging satire upon the 
venality and corruption of the times. The rich, for sale, has- 
tened to the market: Poverty, like Amyclas, remained in her 
hut. 

80. “ Bernard.” Attracted by the piety of Francis, Ber- 
nard, a rich merchant of Quintaval, sought the saint’s society, 
sold all his effects and distributed the sum among the poor, 
all in one day, and attached himself to his revered leader, as 
his first disciple. This Bernard should not be confounded 
with Saint Bernard. 

83. “ Zgidius.’ FEgidius, or Giles, a model of meekness, 
simplicity, and charity, and author of a book aptly entitled 
Verba Aurea, Golden Words. 

83. “ Sylvester.” A priest, but a covetous one, and drawn 
to Saint Francis by evidences of his contempt for money. 

87. “ The halter.” Saint Francis called his body “ Brother 
Ass,” and bound a halter around it to bring it into subjection. 
This halter is perpetuated in the cord of the Franciscan 
Order, and thence the members of that order have been called 
Cordeliers. 

92,98. “Junocent ... Honorius.” Pope Innocent the 
Third gave authority to Francis to establish his Order. This 
was in 1214. In 1223ampler authority was conferred by Pope 
Honorius the Third. 

106. “ Rock.” On Mount Alvernia of the Apennines Saint 
Francis, two years before his death, received the sacred stig- 
mata, the marks of the wounds of Christ in the crucifixion: 
his hands and feet showed the piercing of the nails, his side 
that of the lance. This proof of the divine recognition of 
this exalted servant of God, together with all the other facts 


278 - Paradiso. 





Notes. 





forming the wonderful history of Saint Francis, have been 
industriously collected and faithfully recorded in the admira- 
ble work of M. Chavin de Malan. 

112. “Zady.” Poverty. 

117. “No bier so meet.” On his death-bed, Saint Francis 
gave directions that he be buried among the malefactors, at 
the usual place of public executions, called the Col/e ad’ Jn- 
JSerno, or Hill of Hell. The request was not complied with, 
but the name of the place was changed to Hill of Paradise, 
Colle di Paradiso ; achurch was built there ; and afterwards, 
in 1230, the dying request of the saint found attention, and 
his remains were, with every act which could denote devotion 
and honor, transferred thither. 

Longfellow, besides showing his admiration for Saint 
Francis in the notes to his translation of the Commedia, has 
further evidenced it by his poem on Saint Francis preaching 
to the birds, entitled Zhe Sermon of Saint Francis. 


** Are we devils? Are we men? 
Sweet St. Francis of Assisi— would that he were here again. 
He, that in his Catholic wholeness used to call the very flowers 
Sisters, brothers, and the beasts whose pains are hardly less than ours.” 
Tennyson, in Locksley Hall, Sixty Years after. 


121. “Our Patriarch.’ Saint Dominic. 

124. “ His flock.” Dante laments that the disciples of 
Saint Dominic have left their original sheep-folds, and wan- 
dered about in search of preferments and livings. 





CANTO TWELFTH. 


ARGUMENT : 


Saint Bonaventura, a Franciscan, pronounces to Dante the 
praises of Saint Dominic. 
Still the Heaven of the Sun. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: The Powers of the Heavens in song. 
The spirits of the theologians in song. Saint Bonaventura. 
Dante. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Powers of the Heavens. Thomas. 
Albert. Gratian. Peter. Solomon. Dionysius. Orosius. 
Boéthius. Isidore. Bede. Richard. Sigebert. Illuminato. 
Agostino. Hugues. Pietro. Pope John XXI. Nathan 
the prophet. Chrysostom. Anselm. Donatus. Raban. 
Joachim. Beatrice. 


As soon as had the sacred flame the word 

That last it uttered framed, began to feel 

The sacred millstone impulse strong to wheel, 
And had not yet one revolution stirred 

Before another wrapped it in a ring, 

While song and motion flew on lightsome wing ; 
Song that as much our Muses doth outsport, 

Our Sirens, with their clarion voices, quite 

As primal splendor doth reflected light. 


280 Paradiso. 





Streams of Radiance. 





And as are spanned, a tender cloud athwart, 10 
When Juno’s handmaid’s tints are brought to 
view, 


Two parallel rainbows rich of similar hue, 
The outer taking birth from that within, 
Like to the speaking of that wandering one 
Whom love consumed as vapors drinks the sun, 
And men recall the covenant, following sin, 
God made with Moses, that should nevermore 
The floods abound beyond the ocean’s floor, 


So did those sempiternal roses round 19 
In garlands twain encompass us, and so 
One to the other answered, glow to glow. 

After the dance and gloryings and the sound 
Of jubilant song and blithe and tender streams 
Of radiance sent in far-effulgent beams, 

With one volition moved, as are the eyes 
Which move together, or when closed or when 
They lift aloft obedient lids again, 


From one of the new lights of such blest guise 28 
There came a voice which me a needle made 
To seek the star before me there arrayed, — 

And it began: ‘The love that makes me fair 
Prompts me to speak about the other guide, 

His guide who so well praised our Order’s pride. 

Where one is named the other should have care, 
That, as they stood united in war’s ranks, 

They should like glorious proffer have of thanks. 


Canto XT1TI. 281 


Celestial Warriors. 








“The warrior-bands of Christ, now once more 
massed 37 
At cost so great, behind their standard, few 
In numbers moved, and doubt and apathy knew, 
When the Emperor whose reign shall ne’er be past 
Equipped his legions, thus in peril thrown, 
Not through their worth, but through his grace 
alone. 
And, as was said, He to his Bride brought aid 
With champions twain, whose rallying words and 
deeds 
Gave to the host of faith and power its needs. 


“ Beneath the mighty shield whereon displayed 46 
A lion subject and supreme we find, 
And where caresses of the sweet west wind 

The new leaves open wherewith is begun 
Spring’s reign enamelling Europe far and near, 
Not distant from the beating of the mere 

Beneath which, in its journey long, the sun 
Concealed sometimes from all the nations falls, 
Are situate happy Callahorra’s halls. 


“There of the Christian Faith the lover sweet 55 
Was born, the hallowed athlete who his own 
Made glad with joy midst enemies overthrown. 


. And when his mind created was, replete 


With such a potent virtue was it made, 
That, in his mother, it his life portrayed. 
Soon as the Faith betwixt and him was tied 
The bridal knot at holy font where dower 
Of mutual safety power exchanged with power, 


282 Paradiso. 





Saint Dominic. 





“The woman who was surety on his side 64 
Saw, in a dream, the wondrous fruit foretold 

* He and his heirs should bring from green to gold; 

And that construction just his name might bear, 
She was inspired to give him that his name 
Whereby him wholly God might ever claim. 

Dominic his name was therefore ; him whom Christ 
Chose as the husbandman, bi garden’s plants 
To aid him into fruitage to advance. 


“Servant and messenger both he seemed of 
Christ, 73 
For even in infancy soft his mind seemed stirred 
By things of God, and his first deed the word 
Of counsel followed first given forth by Christ. 
His downy bed his nurse found empty oft, 
And prostrate him, his mind, his sight, aloft. 
O happy father, Felix rightly named! 
O favored mother, well Joanna seems 
To lead the mind to ponder heavenly themes ! 


“Not for the world by many people claimed, 82 
Not-Ostiense’s lore and Taddeo’s skill, 
He the true manna sought with mastering will, 

And, in brief time so great a teacher grew 
That he the vineyard’s paths began to seek 
Where fruit improves ‘neath fruitful pruning 

meek ; 

And of the see that once more friendship knew 
Unto the righteous poor, not through its fault, 
But him who fails his station to exalt, 


ee 


— 


Canto XTT. 283 


Warrant to do Battle. 








“ Not dispensation, two or three for six, ° gr 
Nor choice appointments vacancies might afford, 
Nor tithes he asked kept from the poor of the Lord, 

But ’gainst the erring world his spear to fix, 

And warrant to do battle for the seed 
Wherefrom these twice twelve plants round thee 
proceed. 

Then doctrine’s spear he took and will’s keen blade, 
And seemed as thence of blows came rain on rain, 
A torrent leaping from a lofty vein, 


“And dashing ’gainst the lines that heresy ar- 
rayed, 100 
His plunging charge was there most heavily felt 
Where confidence most in heresy’s leaders dwelt. 
And from that torrent many rivulets played, 
Contrived to quench the catholic garden’s thirst, 
And freshness yield where barrenness ruled at 
first. 3 
If such the one wheel of the chariot was 
Wherein the Holy Church its warfare waged 
And rode triumphant through the battle gaged, 


“No instant need thine hesitation pause 109 
To laud the other, which, before I came, 
Thomas ye heard with courtesy such proclaim. 

But still the track its sacred tire impressed 
Deserted is, so that where once was crust 
Compacted, mould now stays the arena’s dust. 

His family meek that once itself addressed 
To follow in his footprints, set the toe 
Where was his heel, as well the traces show ; 


284 Paradiso. 





Bonaventura. 





“And soon they will discover sheaf by sheaf 18 
Of this bad husbandry’s course when shall com- 
plain 
The tares that they are winnowed from the grain. 
And yet I say that he who, leaf by leaf, 
Would search our volume, would there pages meet 
Where ‘I the.same remain ’ his eye would greet. 
But Acquasparta nor Casale ne’er 
Would readers such send to a question vexed, 
For narrows one its rule, and one neglects. 


‘“‘ Bonaventura of Bagnoreggio fair 127 
Am I, who have all sinister aim aside 
Laid in the duties high which me have tried. 
Illuminato here and Agostino shine 
_ Who of the first bare-footed meek ones were 
That with God’s halter girded forth did fare. 
Hugh of Saint Victor joins the radiant line, 
And Peter Mangiador, and Peter of Spain, 
Whose volumes twelve on earth his fame main- 
tain ; 


“The prophet Nathan; metropolitan great 136 
Chrysostom, Anselm, and Donatus famed 
For teaching how fair sentences best are framed. 
Here is Rabanus and, with joy elate, 
Joachim who, Calabria’s Abbot, saw 
And foresaw, seer ’neath Christian law. 
So great a paladin’s worth to muse and state 
Hath moved me Brother Thomas’s courtesy warm, 
Which he knows well to give instructive form, 


°F oem id ze he egy 2. Te 
i( DUNIVERSITY | 


CALIFORNIA: 














Canto X/T. 


Courtesy. 








“ On which myself and all here gladly wait.” 4s 


NOTES TO THE TWELFTH CANTO. 


3. “ Millstone.” The motion of a millstone is horizontal, 
not vertical. We must take this for one of Dante’s homely 
metaphors. He will return to it in the Twenty-first Canto, 
line 80, where, in the Seventh Heaven, he will say of the 
effulgent spirit of Saint Peter Damian: 

** Scarce had I ended, when, as in a mill, 


A stone is turned around its centre, so, 
In revolution swift, this lamp did glow.” 


The simile below, at line 19, of’ roses swinging round in 
garlands, seems much more pleasing. 

11. “ Funo’s handmaid.” Iris, the Goddess of the rainbow, 
daughter of Thaumas and Electra (Wonder and Brightness), 
and, in the Iliad, messenger of Jupiter and Juno (as, in the 
Odyssey, Mercury is), but in the Aineid, the messenger of 
Juno alone. 

14. “ The speaking.” Echo. In Greek mythology, Echo 
was an oread Nymph, exposed to the jealousy of Juno. The 
Nymph became enamored of Narcissus; and, through the 
malevolence of the Goddess, she was reduced to a mere 
voice. mae 
15. “ Zhe sun.” Here, it is remarkable, are found three 
similes, one inciosed in the other: the successive similes of 
the rainbow, the echo, and the sun. The spirits, “roses” 
swinging “round in garlands,” were as a rainbow, which 
was as the voice of Echo consumed by love, which was as 
vapors imbibed by the sun. 

29, 127. “ A voice... Bonaventura.” John of Fidanza, 
General of the Franciscan Order, was born at Bagnoreggio, 
in 1221, and died at Lyons, July 15, 1274. While one of the 
most profound and eloquent men of his age, the saint was a 
pattern of humility and simplicity. An invalid boy, he was 
brought, by his mother, to receive the blessing of Saint 
Francis, who, on meeting him, exclaimed “ Welcome!” 


286 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





(“ Buona ventura!”) The name remained with him. “One 
golden sentence of his,” says, with enthusiasm, our poet 
Longfellow, “cannot be too often repeated: ‘The best per- 
fection of a religious man is to do common things well. 
Constant fidelity in small things is a great and heroic 
virtue.’” The anecdote told of him, as to his reception of 
his hat as cardinal, shows that he practised what he taught. 
Pope Gregory sent the hat by the hands of a delegation. 
“Hang the hat on a spray of that tree,” he said, “until I 
have finished washing these dishes.” A writer of unsur- 
passed industry, he has left voluminous works. The sub- 
limity of his style and the sweetness of his life have earned 
for him the title of the ‘‘ Seraphic Doctor.” 

The “ Sacrosanctz,” composed by Saint Bonaventura, and 
earnestly recommended by Pope Leo the Tenth as the first 
words of prayer, reads as follows: “ Sacrosanctz et individuz 
Trinitati, Crucifixi Domini nostri Jesu Christi humanitati, 
beatissimz et gloriosissimz semperque Virginis Mariz fo- 
cunde integritati, et omnium sanctorum universitati, sit 
sempiterna laus, honor, virtus, et gloria, ab omni creatura; 
nobisque remissio omnium peccatorum, per infinita secula 
seeculorum!” (To the most holy and undivided Trinity, to 
the Humanity of our Crucified Lord Jesus Christ, to the 
fruitful integrity of the most blessed and most glorious Mary 
ever Virgin, and to the universal company of all the Saints, 
be everlasting praise, honor, power, and glory, from every 
creature; and to us be the remission of all our sins, through 
infinite ages of ages.) 

Worthy of remark seems the easy diction of this compre- 
hensive eulogy of God and the saints, and the rhyming in 
its principal parts: “ Trinitati,” “ humanitati,” “integritati,” 
“universitati,” besides the rhymes so apt to occur, in Latin 
verse and prose: “ Peccatorum,” “szeculorum.” 

32. “ Prompts me.” The courtesy of Saint Thomas of 
Aquin, a Dominican, proclaiming the praises of Saint 
Francis, prompts Saint Bonaventura, a Franciscan, to cele- 
brate the praises of Saint Dominic. 





Canto XII. 287 


Notes, 








54, 55- “Calahorra ... the lover sweet.” Saint Dominic, 
Founder of the Order of Preachers, was born in the Castilian 
town of Calaroga, now Callahorra, April 5, 1170. He died 
August 6, 1221. Abstemious, devout, benevolent, gifted with 
a voice of surpassing qualities, he was, in the pulpit, one of 
the most brilliant champions ever commissioned by Provi- 
dence to succor a suffering cause; and his preaching was 
correspondingly effective. Of the noble family of the Gus- 
mans, his fersonnel deserves a royal portraiture, and it has 
been given by King John of Saxony: “Saint Dominic was a 
man well-built, his complexion of a delicate tint, but, in ex- 
pression, both attractive and imposing. His hair and beard 
were of a reddish cast, and his hands long and beautiful.” 
His life and mission have received fitting homage from the 
pen of the illustrious Lacordaire. 

56, 57, 96, 101. “ Athlete... enemies overthrown... spear 
... blade... plunging charge.” Similes like these, employed 
by Dante and other writers, in their enthusiasm over the 
spiritual successes of Dominic, have led some to suppose 
that the saint combined the military career with the spiritual, 
or, at least, that he was ‘aman of bitter and remorseless vio- 
lence, a persecutor, like Saul before he became Paul. On 
the pages of history, however, the vindication of the saint is 
very easy. His campaigns were all conducted in the pulpit, 
his cruelties were.all inflicted there: his logic was inexorable, 
not himself. All that can be discovered in connection with 
the infliction of death is, that he rescued /vom death an un- 
fortunate man whom opportunity enabled him to favor; ard 
that while an Albigensian battle was raging round the church 
of Muret, he was, throughout the entire engagement, on his 
knees in prayer in the church. His connection with the In- 
quisition is a mere freak of the imagination on the part of 
writers*who have made imperfect examination of data. 

58. “ When his mind.” Dante adopted the doctrine of 
Saint Thomas of Aquin that the creation and infusion of the 
soul, its union with the body, were simultaneous acts. This 
doctrine departed from that of Plato, which declared the 


288. Paradiso. 





Notes. 





souls of all men to be created in the beginning, once for all, 
and afterwards united with the body. 

60, 64. “ Mother ... woman.” His mother, before his 
birth, dreamed that she had brought forth a dog, spotted 
black and white, and having a lighted torch in his mouth; 
symbols of fidelity and illumination. His godmother dreamed 
that he had a star on his forehead and another opposite, on 
the back of his head, and that these stars shone towards the 
east and the west; symbols of influence and fame. 

68. “ Ais name.” Dominicus, belonging to the Lord. 

70, 73, 76. “ Christ ... Christ ... Christ.” Noticeable 
here is the refusal of Dante to rhyme with the Sacred Name 
any other than the Sacred Name. Instances of this will be 
met with again in the Fourteenth, Nineteenth, Twenty-ninth, 
and Thirty-second Cantos. 

75. “ His first deed... the words of counsel first given forth 
by Christ.” “Master, what lack I yet? Then Jesus behold- 
ing him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lack- 
est: if thou wilt be perfect, sell whatsoever thou hast, and 
give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: 
and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was 
sad at that saying, and went away grieved, for he had great 
possessions.” JZatthew xix. 21; Mark x. 21. This was, prob- 
ably, that “‘ great refusal” to which Dante has heretofore 
made allusion. But Dominic implicitly, fervently, adopted 
this counsel. He, a young man, not yet having finished his 
studies, sold his books, and even his clothes, to relieve the 
poor. He even offered so sell himself in ransom of a poor 
man held in captivity by the Moors. 

79, 80. “ Felix... Foanna.’ Happy is the signification 
of Felix; full of grace that of Joanna. 

83. “ Ostiense ... Taddeo.” The first was Henry of Susa, 
a cardinal, and Bishop of Ostia, and thence called Ostiense, 
a commentator on the Decretals. Taddeo Alderotti, of 
Bologna, translated the Ethics of Aristotle. They both be- 
longed to the thirteenth century. Taddeo was a contemporary 
of Dante. 


Canto XII. 289 


Notes. 








89, 93. “Poor ... poor.’ Buti says that in early times 
the revenues of churches were divided into four parts: one 
for the prelate, one for the clergyman or clergymen who 
officiated, one for church repairs, and one for the poor. 

go. “ Him.” Pope Boniface the Eighth. 

gl. “ Dispensation.” Commutation of the dues to the 
poor, in the proportion of “two or three for six,” that is, 
depriving the poor of more than half of their dues. 

96. “ Twice twelve plants.” The twenty-four stars of the 
theological Heaven. 

110. “ The other.” The other wheel of the chariot.of the 
Church Triumphant; Saint Dominic and Saint Francis being 
the two wheels. Cary calls attention to the opinion of Mac- 
chiavelli (“no great friend to the church,” as Cary observes) 
that the revival of Christianity was due to the influence of 
these two saints, that the Christian religion, if it had not by 
them been brought back to its principle, would have been 
extinguished. 

113, 114. “ Crust’... mould.” A simile derived from a 
wine-cask and applied to a chariot course. Good wine de- 
posits in the cask a crust, tartar; bad wine a moz/d, fungus. 
With the simile of the chariot is thus combined this new 
simile. Dante, evidently, does not object to similes in clus- 
ters. 

124. “ Acquasparta . . . Casale.” Successively generals of 
the Franciscan Order, and contemporaries of Dante. The 
first relaxed the rules of discipline, the second gave them 
increased stringency. 

130. “ Z/luminato ... Agostino.” Tluminato was the special 
companion of Saint Francis, his Achates. He went with him 
to the court of the Sultan. He persuaded him to discard his 
scruples, and make known to the world the wonderful mark 
of God’s favor in the stigmaza. 

Agostino became the head of the Franciscan Order in the 
Terra di Lavoro. He there received, on his deathbed, a 
supernatural revelation of the death of Saint Francis, and 
immediately exclaimed: “ Wait for me! wait for me! I am 


290 _ Paradiso. 





Notes. 





coming with thee!” When asked of whom he spoke, he 
answered: “Do ye not see our Father Francis ascending to 
Heaven?” and life instantly fled. 

133. “ Hugh of Saint Victor.” A monk in the monastery 
of Saint Victor near Paris. According to Milman, (story of 
Latin Christianity, viii. 240, his. ethical system furnishes a 
lofty contemplation of the inmost essence of God. 

134. “ Peter... . Peter.’ Peter Mangiadore, or Peter 
Comestor, so called because a devourer of books, was also a 
monk of Saint Victor. He was Chancellor of the University 
of Paris, and wrote voluminously on ecclesiastical history. 
He died in 1198. 

Peter of Spain was the author of a work on Logic, and 
was elevated to the papacy in 1276, under the title of John 
the Twenty-first, and died the next year, when Dante was 
eleven. 

136. “ Mathan.” The prophet’s boldness before King 
David rendered him, in Dante’s sconces worthy of a 
place in Paradise. 

136. “ Chrysostom, Anselm, Donatus.” John, metropolitan 
bishop of Constantinople, belongs to the fourth century. As 
lawyer, monk, preacher, bishop, he reached to the loftiest 
heights in oratory, and deserved his surname, the Golden- 
Mouthed. 

Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, a theologian of high 
and searching insight, belongs to the eleventh century. 

félius Donatus, a Roman grammarian of the fourth cen- 
tury, was one of the preceptors of Saint Jerome, whom 
Dante is careful to mention in the Twenty-ninth Canto. 

139. ‘ Rabanus.” Rabanus Maurus, Bishop of Mayence, 
was a learned theologian and writer of the ninth century. 

140 “ Foachim.” A distinguished mystic, ascetic, and 
author of the twelfth century. His chief work or subject 
was the Eternal Gospel, the Gospel of the Spirit. God 
ruled, he said, in the Old Testament, Christ in the New, and 
the reign of the Holy Spirit is to follow. He made repeated 
prophecies, which were verified, “ Seer ’neath Christian law.” 


Canto XII. 291 





Notes. 





Longfellow, in his Christus, bids him sing: 
** Open and manifest to me 

The truth appears, and must be told: 
All sacred mysteries are threefold: 
Three Persons in the Trinity ; 
Three Ages in Humanity, 
And Holy Scriptures likewise Three, 
Of Fear, of Wisdom, and of Love.”? 


CANTO THIRTEENTH. 


' ARGUMENT: 


Dante now sees and describes twenty-four stars, theologians, 
concentric with the pole. The array of stars divides itself 
into two discs revolving in opposite directions around the 
pole. These stars sing the praises of the Trinity. Then 
silence prevails, and Saint Thomas of Aquin, one of the 
twenty-four, enters upon a discourse on the divine purposes 
and plans, suggested by Dante’s second doubt as to the 
eminent place assigned by Saint Thomas to Solomon. The 
Canto closes with a homely admonition against rash judg- 
ment. 

Still the Heaven of the Sun. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Saint Thomas of Aquin. Celestial 
voices. Dante. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Powers of the Heavens. Thomas. 
Albert. Gratian. Peter. Solomon. Dionysius. Orosius. 
Boéthius. Isidore. Bede. Richard. Sigebert. Illuminato. 
Agostino. Hugues. Pietro. John. Nathan. Chrysos- 
tom. Anselm. Donatus. Raban. Joachim. Beatrice. 


Let him who would conceive what now I saw, 
Imagine this: (and let him, while I speak, 

The image hold firm as a mountain’s peak) 

The fifteen stars that with such ’wildering awe 
The heavens illumine that their mastering glare 
Make dim all clustering splendors of the air ; 

And stars the Wagon turn through heaven’s high 

dome | 
Around the pole, its axis, night and day, 
As wends it on celestial roads its way; 


Canto XIII. 293 


The Trinity. 








And the bright angles of the horn where home 10 
The fair stars claim forth from the axis ranged 
Round which still primal motion swings un- 

changed ; 

Let him all these imagine to have wrought 
In heaven two signs like those which came serene 
From Minos’ daughter’s death to such a scene, 

And one to be around the other brought, 

And both revolving motion such to show 
That one would opposite to the other go; 


And he of that true constellation’s mass 19 

May form an image, and the double dance 

That ’fore mine eyes did either way advance ; 
And do those heavenly motions so surpass 

Our lingering ways, as lags Chiana’s ooze 

Behind the swiftest heavens that rest refuse. 
Not Bacchus’ praise, no Io Pzean’s meed, 

Sounds here; the Godhead’s Three here praise 

combine 
With that of One both human and divine. 


The song and dance now ceased, and courteous 
heed 28 
To us those sacred lights imparted, joyed 
To be in change of kindly cares employed ; 

And ’fore those saints harmonious now he spoke, 
Who had, from his own light, to me set forth 
The wondrous life of God’s meek man of worth, 

And said: “ Love doth me now invoke 
That other straw to tread that may its seed, 
With that already garnered up, thee feed. 


294. Paradiso. 





Atonement. 





“ Thou knowest that all of life that is vouchsafed 37 
To human nature was infused entire 
When brought one and the same creative fire 
Life to that breast from whence the rib was graved 
To form the beauteous cheek whose wayward 
taste 
Doth all their long prosperity’s happiness waste, 
And to that other breast the lance transfixed, 
And which, before and since, atonement made 
So ample that it evils all outweighed ; 


** And hence thy wonder is well-nigh unmixed 46 
At what I said, that never second had | 
The fifth light’s glow of knowledge deep and 
glad. 
To this mine answer now thy mind apply, 
And thy thoughts and my words, each true alike, 
Shall both the centre of the circle strike. 
Whate’er dies not, as well as that doth die, 
Are each but ways of that idea divine 
Our Lord to exist doth lovingly design ; 


“ Because that Living Light, which doth proceed 55 
From out his Brightness, so that, with his Love 
And Hin, it reigns Triune, so moves above 

That it unites the rays its bounties feed 
In nine subsistencies, a mirror wide, 

But One itself eternally doth abide. , 

Descending thence to lowest powers, from act 
To act, it so its energy sinks it some 

' Contingencies allows in these to come. 


+ 
“ 


Canto XIII. 295 © 


»Character-Germs. 








* Contingencies are things wherein hath lacked 64 
Creative force; them moving stars control, 
With or without seed, by their motion sole. 

Neither their wax, nor that first impress made 
Remains immutable, and hence may shine 
The seal ideal more or less divine. 

And in the self-same tree the seal may fade, 

And of its kind yield better fruit and worse, 
As men are born with character-germs diverse. 


“ If co perfection tempered were the wax, 73 
And in its mood disposing Heaven supreme, 
The seal would with complete perfection beam, 

But nature’s fault is it e’er somewhat lacks 
As doth the artist skilled, whose trembling hand 
Cannot perfection’s ultimate point command. . 

If fervent Love, then, and high Vision clear, 

And primal Power, the seal fix and dispose, 
There all perfection from the impact glows. 


“ Thus was of old the clay created, dear 82 
Its traits with every gift vouchsafed to man, 
And thus its influence to the Virgin ran. 

So I commend thy judgment, that hath ne’er 
Our human nature such perfection shown 
As in those two prime instances alone. 

Now, if herein I should no further fare, 

‘Then in what way had he no peer?’ would be 
Upon my words thy pertinent comment free. 


296 Paradiso. 





The hidden Yea and Nay. 





“But, that what now appears not may be seen, 9 
Recall his state, and in what noble task 
He made request when it was told him ‘ Ask,’ 

‘ I so have spoken as indeed I mean, 
That he a king was who for wisdom prayed, 
That, as a king, he might therefrom have aid ; 

Not that he might the Heavenly Motors count, 
Or, if, with a contingent, necessary could 
Necessity make, or if ’t is understood 


“That a First Motion hath its certain feunt, .. 100 
Or if one, in a semi-circle’s line, 
A triangle not rectangular may define. 
Whence, noting all that I have said, observe 
A royal prudence unexcelled is claimed 
As that whereto my shaft’s intention ’s aimed. 
And to see ‘ worthy’ if thy clear eyes serve, 
Thou ‘It see it doth to kings alone refer, 
Of whom are few that do not greatly err. 


‘With this distinction take thou what I said, _ 109 
And thus it will with thy belief unite — 
Of our first father and our Chief Delight. 
And to thy feet let this be always lead 
To make thee, as a weary man, obey 
Slow progress t’wards the hidden Yea and Nay; 
For very far towards the fools he tends 
Who, in each case where should distinction reign, 
Will bluntly ‘ Aye’ or bluntly ‘No’ maintain ;. 


Canto XTIT, 297 





Judgment. 





“ Since it befalls that, in most instances, bends us 
Current opinion to false ends; and, then, 
Bias and prejudice warp the minds of men. 

Far more than vainly doth he loose from shore, 
Since he returns e’en idler than he left, 
Who fishes for the truth, of skill bereft. 

Hereof plain proofs before the whole world bore 
Parmenides, “Melissus, Bryson, and the crowd 
Who journeyed on, and no true aim avowed. 


“So Arius did, Sabellius, and fools more, 127 
Who, like to scimitars, have the scriptures made 
Distorted seem, and strangely disarrayed. 

In judging, none should into confidence soar, 

Like one who, while the crop’s still in the field, 
Determines what will be the future yield. 

For I have seen intractable, rough and rude 
All winter long, the thorn severely frown, 

And afterwards bear, transformed, a roseate 
crown, 


“ And I have seen a ship which hath pursued 136 
Its swift, safe way across the sea, at last, 
Sink in the harbor’s mouth, freight, man, and 
mast. 
Let not Dame Bertha nor Sir Martin all 
God’s way to measure think, when they one steal 
Shall see, and one, his offering making, kneel ; 
For one of these may rise, the other fall!” 


298 | Paradiso. 





Notes. 





NOTES TO THE THIRTEENTH CANTO. 


4,7, 10. “ Fifteen... the Wagon... the horn.” The 
fifteen stars “that make dim all other splendors” are the 
largest stars around the pole. The stars the Wagon turn, in 
other words those of the Great Bear, are seven in number. 
“The bright angles of the horn” are the pole star and the 
last star of the Little Bear. 

14. “ Minos’ daughter.” According to the tradition, Bac- 
chus placed the wedding-crown of Ariadne among the stars. 
It is the “ Cretan crown” of the First Georgic, 222: 


* The Cretan splendors dense 
That Ariadne’s brilliant crown attend.” 


And the “clere corowne” of Chaucer, Legende of Good 
- Women: 


** And in the syne of Taurus men may se 
The stones of hire corrowne shyne clere.” 


And the “crowne, unto the starres an ornament ” of Spenser, 
Faerie Queene, vi. 10, 13: 


** Looke! Now the crowne which Ariadne wore 
Upon her yvory forehead that same day 
That Thesais her unto his bridale bore, 
When the bold Centaures made that bloudy fray 
With the fierce Lapithes which did them dismay, 
Being now placed in the firmament, 
Through the bright heaven doth her beams display, 
And is unto the starres an ornament, 
Which round about her move in order excellent.” 


23. “ Chiana.” A stream in Tuscany, broadening into the 
stagnant marshes of the Valdichiana, and emptying into the 
Arno near Arezzo. Modern drainage and cultivation have 
made this valley a dream of beauty; so that the metaphor 
no longer applies. 

24. “ Swiftest Heaven.” The Primum Mobile, next Heaven 
to the peaceful one, of the Empyrean. 

34,47. “ That other straw... Never second.” Said of 
Solomon : 


Canto XIII. 299 


Notes. 








* The lofty mind which knowledge deep doth hold, 
Such as is of no second worthy told.” 


Tenth Canto, 112; repeated in the Eleventh, 26; and now 
here explained. . 

53. “Idea divine.” All things, perishable and imperishable, 
are but the thought of God, “emanations,” as Cary well says, 
“from the archetypal idea residing in the divine mind,” and 
by the divine thought created in love. The immediate pow- 
ers in creation are, as we have seen, employed in the creation 
of man, the remote in that of the lower orders. ! 

55, 50,57. “ Living Light... Love ... Him.” The Son, 
the Holy Spirit, God. 

59. “ Mine subsistencies.” The nine choirs controlling the 
nine Heavens. “ What exists by itself, and not in anything 
else, is called subsistence.” Saint Thomas of Aquin, Summa, 
i. 29, 2. 

60. “One.” The Trinity in Unity. 

63, 64. “ Contingencies.” Imperfect and perishable results 
more or less divine. 

81. “ All perfection.’ The work of Love, Vision, Primal 
Power, of the Spirit, the Son, and the Father, is perfect. 

82, 85. “ Zhe Clay... The Virgin.” Adam; the Blessed 
Virgin, the descendant of Adam. 

93. “ Ask.” “God said, Ask what I shall give thee... . 
Give thy servant an understanding heart . . . lo, I have given 
thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was 
. none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like 
unto thee.” 1 Kings iii. 5, 12. 

99. “Lf, with a contingent.” Dante, by all this, means to 
say that Solomon did not “ask” for wisdom in astronomy, 
dialectics, logic, or the mathematics, but asked that he might 
excel in “ royal prudence.” 

125. “Parmenides, Melissus, Bryson.” logical logicians 
and assertors of strange theories as: “ All is already one 
from eternity.” Nothing is created, but “a powerful neces- 
sity holds it within the bonds of its own limits,” and similar 
verbiage. 


300 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





127. “ Arius ... Sabellius.” Sabellius was of the third, 
Arius of the fourth, century. Arianism distracted the church 
for more than three hundred years. 

128. “Scimitars.’ It would seem that this simile is de- 
rived from a usage of the wandering Arabs in employing their 
scimitars as mirrors. Such a mirror would distort the fea- 
tures, and such philosophers: distort truth. 

139, 140. “ All God’s way.” These wise people who know. 
“all God’s way,” Dante calls “Dame Bertha” and “Sir 
Martin.” We would probably call them Mrs. Grundy and 
Mr. Wiseacre. “ What every one is zx the eyes of God,” Saint 
Francis used to say, “ that he is, and no more,” and, of course, 
he meant, and no less. Wright, in the original series of 
notes to his translation, quotes Burns’s Address to the Unco 
Guid: 

** Then gently scan your brother man, 

Still gentler sister woman; 

Though they may gang a kennin’ wrang, 
To step aside is human: 

One point must still be greatly dark, 
The moving why they do it: 

And just as lamely can ye mark 
How far perhaps they rue it. 


»“ Who made the heart, ’t is He alone 

Decidedly can try us; 

He knows each chord — its various tone, 
Each spring, — its various bias. 

Then at the balance let ’s be mute 3 
We never can adjust it ; 

What ’s done we partly may compute, 
But know not what’s resisted.” 


CANTO FOURTEENTH. 


ARGUMENT: 


In behalf of Dante, Beatrice addresses to the celestial spirits 
queries as to celestial natures, which are answered by King 
Solomon. 

Amidst blinding splendors, Dante finds himself translated to 
the sphere of Mars, the seat of the fifth Heaven, the abode 
of martyrs and crusaders who died fighting for the faith, 
and placed under the control of the Virtues of the Heavens ; 
Virtue here implying, with its other meanings, valor. There, 
amidst exquisite music, certain spirits arrange themselves 
in the form of a cross whereon Christ is seen. One of 
these spirits is Cacciaguida, a crusader, the great-great- 
grandfather of Dante. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: The celestial choirs. Divine music. 
Solomon. Dante. Beatrice. Blessed spirits singing, 
while they surround and accompany Christ on the Cross. 


PERSONS APPEARING: Christ on the Cross. The Powers of 
the Heavens. The Virtues of the Heavens. Saint Thomas 
and the twenty-two others. Cacciaguida. 


In a round vase the water is inclined 
From edge to centre, or in course reverse, 
Just as ’tis stigred by that it doth immerse. 
Such was the image came into my mind 
What time to silence sank the glorious voice 
Of Thomas speaking from that circle choice, 
Because like his discourse it seemed, as well 
As words that from the centre outward went 
From Beatrice still on offices kind intent: 


302 Paradiso. 





The Joy of the Blessed. 





“This man hath need (though this he doth not 
tell, 10 
Not with his voice, nor yet e’en in his thought) 
That he in face of one more truth be brought. 
Declare unto him if the light that now 
Your substance kindles shall the same remain 
Eternally with you, and its flame maintain ; 
And, if it do remain, inform him how, 
After again ye visible are, the light 
Be kept from injuring your corporeal sight.” 


As, by increase of gladness moved, a throng 19 
Of dancers who a ring adorn, with voice 
Upraised and motion quickened, all rejoice, 

So, in their circling and their wondrous song, 
Those holy companies high new joy displayed 
At this devout and prompt petition made. 

Whoso doth sorrow feel that here we die 
That we may live above, hath of that shower 
Eternal felt ne’er the reviving power ! 


The One and Two and Three who lives for aye, 28 
And who reigns ever in Three, Two, and One, 
All circumscribing, circumscribed by none, 

Three several times each spirit chanted, notes 
So charming using that the lofty lay 
For all deserts men know would amply pay. 

And from the most divine of those meek throats, 
Within the inner arc, a voice was heard, 

Such as perhaps the Angel’s accents stirred 


Canto XTV. 303 





Vision. Fervor. Will. 





Who Mary sought: “ Long as this festal seat 37 
Of Paradise bides, so long shall round us ray 
A vesture like this one wherein we stay. 
Its brightness is as is our fervor’s heat, 
Our fervor as our vision, and this last 
As it on unearned grace hath holding fast. 


' When we our flesh shall glorious reassume, 


More saintly shall our persons then be seen, 
More pleasing, as complete; more bright our 
sheen. 


“‘ For will increase and spread to greater bloom 46 
The light unearned the Good Supreme makes 
ours, 
Light which to endure his presence aids our 
powers ; 
So will our vision pierce through infinite room, 
So will our fervor swell through vision’s fire, 
So will our radiance rise by fervor higher. 
Even as a coal in flame abundant bound 
Rules with its vividness dense the rarer light, 
So that its contour readily strikes the sight, 


“ Thus the effulgence that now wraps us round | s5 
Shall in its brightness yield unto the flesh 
Which mouldering clods of earth to-day enmesh ; 

Nor will such light excessive weary us then, 

For our corporeal organs will have might 
Sufficient for our enjoyment of delight.” 
And now the ready and devout “ Amen!” 
Sent by the voices all of each blest choir 
Well showed for their dead bodies their desire ; 


304. Paradiso. 





Subsistences. Beauty of Beatrice. 





Not for themselves alone, perhaps, but those 64 
Who, ere imperishable flames they were, 
Their fathers, mothers, friends, shared their kind 

care. 

And lo! extended equally, now there rose 
All round a lustre brighter than that sphere, 
Like an horizon which becomes more clear. 

And, as at twilight’s evening hour there peer, 
From out the gloaming, visions seeming new, 
So there sights real and unreal shone through, 


And new subsistences seemed coming near 73 
And shaping gradually a sphere of light 
The brilliant circles twain transcending quite, 

O sparkling real of the Eternal Ray, 
How did its incandescent suddenness throw 
Athwart my sight its overpowering glow! 

But Beatrice now, with that her beauteous play 
Of smiles and graces so me held in thrall 
From memory shrinks that glow, her beauty, all. 


Then to look up mine eyes regained their power, 82 
And I beheld myself to loftier skies 
Sole with my Lady midst those splendors rise. 
Well knew I by the smiling of the star 
Wherein we entered that the height was gained, 
For there around a ruddier radiance reigned. 
With all my heart, and in that language high 
Which all employ, I gratefully made to heaven 
Such holocaust, then, as claimed the new grace 
given. 


Canto XIV. 305 


The Sphere of Mars, 








And had not of that inner altar’s sigh 9r 
The fervor slackened ere that offering true 
I as accepted and auspicious knew ; 

For with such mighty sheen and lustre red 
Splendors appeared before me ray on ray, 
I said: ““O Lord God, glorious is thy way! ” 

As leads the galaxy wise men ne’er have read 
From pole to pole its greater lights and less 
There beaming fair while each on each doth press, 


Thus sown with brilliants in the depths of Mars 100 
Those rays described that sign mankind adore 
Which, in a circle’s bounds, makes quadrants 

four. . 

Here memory conquers all of genius’ powers, 

For on that cross as levin gleamed forth Christ, 
Whereof is worthy no similitude ; Christ 

He who will humbly follow, he who Christ 
As pattern seeks, will phrases waive when light 
Auroral leads him to that heavenly sight. 


From side to side, and ’twixt the top and base, 09 
- Lights met in scintillations lone or massed, 
As hither, thither, up and down they passed. 
’T was as are seen in ever-changeful race 
The motes the sunbeams“ficker, which the sight 
Sees marching here and there, where’er the light 
Strikes through the lattices art prepares to shield 
The burdened eyes and overheated head 
From rays which pour from torrid torrents sped. 


306 Paradiso. 





Arise and Conquer. 





And as across a widely-spreading field 118 
The dulcet tinkling comes of lute or harp 
Where distance makes the notes less plainly sharp, 
So seemed to come, from out that luminous maze 
Upgathered through the cross, a melody dim 
Which held me rapt, though knew I not the hymn. 
Yet knew I well ’t was one of lofty praise, 
Because “ Arise and conquer !”’ meet mine ears 
As sound meets one who, not distinguishing, hears. 


So much enamored I therewith became 127 
That, until then,;such fetters sweet ne’er held 
A prisoner close by ecstasy’s affluence spelled. 
Perhaps I here some slight excuse should frame 
To those fair eyes, wherein I should attest 
My gazing ever brings me wished-for rest. 
But, who bethinks him that the living seals 
Of every beauty brighten as they rise, | 
And that to them I had not turned mine eyes, 


Will frame excuse which such neglect well heals, :36 
And know that here truth’s truthfullest word ’s 
employed 
Because I had not that high bliss enjoyed 
Which orb on orb and Heaven on Heaven reveals. 


NOTES TO THE FOURTEENTH CANTO. 


2, 6, 8. “ From edge to centre... from that circle choice 
... from the centre outward.” The voice of Thomas from 
the circumference, and that of Beatrice from the centre, 
suggested to Dante this simile of water ina bowl. Their 
several speeches made currents and counter-currents of words 
and thoughts. 





Canto XTV. 307 


Notes. 








14. “ Substance.” The soul is substance. 
18. “Corporeal sight.” The light of the heaven was of 
. such brilliancy that the mortal organs of vision could not 
endure it. Dante needed, as we have already noted, special 
strengthening for the exigency. 

34. “ The most divine.’ Solomon. 

39. “ A vesture.” The radiant spiritual body of the blest. 
See Purg. xxv. 82-108; and see the notes to the first Canto 
of the Inferno. 

‘43. “Our flesh.” The glorified fleshly body of the resur- 
rection. See Inferno, vi. 94, and x. Io. 

46. “ Will increase and spread.’ The opinions of Pope 
Benedict the Twelfth, and the decree adopted by a Consistory 
called by him in the year 1336, are, on this point, in conform- 
ity with the opinion here expressed by Dante. This decree 
is considered as having forever settled this question. 

73. “ New subsistences.” New spirits arising. 

75. “ The brilliant circles twain.” ‘The revolving discs 
described in the preceding Canto. 

82. “ Held in thrall.” Lifted to Mars by gazing on the 
countenance of Beatrice. 

102. “ That sign mankind adore.” The Cross. The adora- 
tion of the Cross forms part of the service for Good Friday. 
It is then that, in approaching the Cross, the priest takes his 

' shoes from off his feet, and by priest and choir is sung the 
“Ecce lignum.” Follow this the “Crucem tuam adoramus,” 
the selections from Scripture called “the Reproaches,” and 
the “ Crux fidelis:” 


** Crux fidelis, inter omnes 
Arbor una nobilis: 
Nulla sylva talem profert, 
Fronde, flore, germine ; 
Dulce lignum, dulces clavi; 
Dulce pondus sustinet.”’ 


130. “ Some slight excuse.” The meaning of the conclusion 
of this Canto briefly stated is, that the ecstasy of the delight 
derived from the contemplation of the splendors of Heaven 
made Dante, for the moment, forget the eyes of Beatrice. 


CANTO FIFTEENTH: 


ARGUMENT: 


Encouraged by the smiling eyes of Beatrice, Dante engages 
his ancestor in conversation, and learns from him the 
simple lives of the earlier Florentines. 

Still the Heaven of Mars. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Dante. Cacciaguida. 


PERSONS APPEARING: Christ on the Cross. The Virtues of 
the Heavens. Beatrice. Martyrs. Crusaders. 


A wILL benign, whereof doth never tire 
The love that prompts to virtue, as, in vice, 
Cupidity waits its victims to entice, 
Silence imposed on that harmonious lyre, 
And stilled the sacred chords which Heaven’s 
right hand 
Doth loose or tighten at love’s own command. 
How must they bend to just prayers ready heed, 
Who, that they might my will for prayer allow, 
Did to Heaven’s will, with one consenting, bow! 


Canto XV. 309 





Fire in Alabaster. 





Good cause hath he for endless grief, indeed, 10 
Who, for the love of that which doth not last, 
Eternal joys hath from his destiny cast! 

As, in aclear night, through heaven’s ample space, 
There glides, sometimes, of fire a hidden trail 
That makes the observant eye its presence hail, 

And seems to be a star that changeth place, 

Only that in that part whence came it naught 
Is missed, and suddenly to an end ’t is brought ; 

So from the side that to the right doth wend 19 
Out of that constellation ran a star ; 

And from the cross’s foot it shone afar ; 

Nor did the gem slip from its ribbon’s end, 
But round the radiant edge kept its career, 
And seemed like fire in alabaster clear. 

Thus did Anchises’ pious shade reach forth, 

If faith our greatest Muse's words have won, 
When in Elysian fields he saw his son. 


“QO blood of mine! O grace of God on worth 28 

~ Well poured! To whom but’unto thee was ’t 
given 

To enter twice the portals fair of Heaven ?” 
The effulgence thus; and its warm tears I felt; 

Then to my Lady I my sight turned round, 

And by them both was in amazement bound. 
For in her eyes a smile so exquisite dwelt 

That with mine own the bottom touched I deemed 

Of what my grace and coveted Paradise seemed. 


310 Paradiso. 





Sweet Hungering. 





Then, to its proem joined the spirit’s voice 37 
Things grasped I not, so deep they were, although 
Pleased me his tones and his enraptured glow; 

Nor did it things obscure propound by choice, 

But by necessity moved, for soared so far 
’Bove mortals’ mark the shafts that aimed this 
star. 

And when, held lower his bow, its lesser reach 
From transports high to planes inferior came, 
And marks sought near to our restritted aim, 


What first I understood of this his speech 46 
Was “ Be thou blest, O holy Three and One, ~ 
Who hast unto my seed such courtesy done!” 

And further thus: ‘ Thou hast, my son, allayed, 
Here where I frame my words, within this light, 
By grace of her who to this lofty flight 

Hath plumed thee forth, sweet hungering though 

delayed 

Drawn from the volume clothed with heavenly 
might 

Wherein no change can come in black or white. 


“Thou deemest that to me is sent thy thought | 55 
* By Him, the First, as from the unit’s sum, 
If that be known, the other numbers come ; 
Thence who I am is not of me besought, 
And why for thee more joyous rays me fire 
Than any others of this joyous choir. 
Thy deeming’s true ; because the small and great 
Of all this company in the mirror seek 
Thy mind’s expression ere thou dost it speak. 


Canto XV. 311 


The Smile of Beatrice. 








“ But that the love divine I watch elate 64 
With sight perpetual, and whose sweet lament . 
Makes me to thirst, may have its full content, 

Let now, secure and frank and glad, thy word 
Proclaim thy wishes, thy desire make known, 
To which an answer is decreed thine own.” 

To Beatrice then I turned me, and she heard, 

Ere I had spoken, and her smiled delight 
My wings more eager made for loftiest flight. 


Then said I thus: “When on you dawned that 
state 73 
Which equal makes all men, were you, in heaven, 
Wisdom and love in equal measure given ; 
Because so equal in the Fountain great 
From whence ye drew your radiance and your heat, 
Whereof similitudes none the glory meet. 
But will and power in mortals, for the cause 
That well ye know, have wings with strength 
diverse, 
Some with the better armed, and some the worse. 


‘ A mortal I am bound by mortal laws, 82 
And therefore give no thanks but in the heart 
To this paternal greeting ; but impart, 

I pray thee, O thou living topaz, set, 

A gem, within this precious jewel’s frame, 
Impart, what I shall e’er enjoy, thy name !”’ 

“Thy root I am, O leaf! and pleased have met 
The end of my long waiting for thee, son!” 
Thus was his answer to my prayer begun. 


312 Paradiso. 





History of Florence. 





Then thus he said: “That one from whom thy 
race ro) 
Its name derives, and who a hundred years 
The Mount’s first terrace hath pursued with tears, 
My son and thy great-grandfather may’st thou trace; 
Well it behooves his Jong endurance there 
Should be made shorter by thy works and care. 
Chaste, quiet, temperate, Florence was, while yet 
She was encircled by her ancient wall, 
Whose bells her still to old devotions call. 


** She chains of gold nor coronals wore gem-set, 100 
Her ladies wore not broidered robes, nor higher 
Regards their zones drew than their eyes’ sweet 

fire. 

Not from a daughter’s birth did e’er arise 
Within her father’s mind the dread that dower 
Might her delay, and strain his purse’s power. 

No houses had she void of family ties ; 

No Sardanapalus yet had shown how vice 
Can weave in chambers follies fools entice ; 


“Not yet had Monte Mario’s scene adored 109 
Been passed by your Uccellatoio’s, this 
To sink as deep as high has been its bliss. 
Bellincion Berti saw I walk abroad 
In leathern belt bone-clasped, and from the glass 
His dame unpainted in her beauty pass. 
The sons of Nerli and of Vecchio clad 
I saw in simple jackets short, of skin, 
And saw their frugal wives sit down to spin. 


Canto XV. 313 





Primitive Simplicity. 





- ©O happy women! Each assurance had 118 


Of her own burial-place, and left no bed 
Lords then who into France had basely sped. 

Awake one stayed to keep the cradle tipped, 
And, in her lullaby soft would songs repeat, 
In idiom such as parents first find sweet ; 


_ Another, as the distaff’s flax she nipped, 


Among her family meekly listening, told 
Of Troy and Rome and Fesole histories old. 


“Then would have Lapo Salterello been, 127 
Or Cianghella, wondrous as now would 
Plain Cincinnatus or Cornelia good. 
To such a brotherhood safe, so sweet an inn, 
To citizenship so peaceful, fair, and true, 
To equality which no flaunting haughtiness knew, 
Did Mary, with loud cries invoked, me give, 
And in your ancient Baptistery I became 
Christian, and Cacciaguida took for name. 


* From folk whose race in Val di Pado live 136 
Thy surname and my wife were ; brothers mine 
Eliséo and Moronto were in fine. 

The Emperor Conrad’s service I pursued, 

And he on me the knightly sword did gird, 
So much of my high prowess had he heard. 

I, in his train, that wicked law and rude 
Moved to attack, whose people make assault 
And usurpation through your Pastor’s fault. 


314 Paradiso. 





The Execrable Race. 





“There, by that execrable race, release 145 
I had from bonds of the deceitful world, 
Whose love hath souls to deep perdition hurled, 
And came from martyrdom unto this peace.” 


NOTES TO THE FIFTEENTH CANTO. 


26. “ Anchises.” 


** And now when opposite him, the herbage green 
Across, he saw AEneas come, he held, 
With glad alacrity, forth extended far, 
Both hands. And down his cheeks tears poured. And fell 
From out his lips his words: ‘ And art thou come 
At last? And hath thy piety brave, as doubt 
None had I that it would, fought out the way, 
The rugged way unto thy parent loved ?’” 
Sixth Aineid, 684. 

27. “Our greatest Muse.” Virgil. 

53. “ Volume.” The Volume of the Divine Mind, wherein 
no erasures nor interlineations can be made. 

56. “ Zhe unit.” The elements of numbers are all con- 
tained in the first original one, the unit. 

61. “ Zhe mirror.” The spirits in Paradise see in’ God, 
as in a mirror, even the ¢houghts of men. 

79, 83. “ Will and power .. . but in the heart.’ Dante has 
the will, but not the power, to thank the spirit, except by the 
thankful feeling of the heart. 

85. “O thou.” Dante uses the affectionate “thou,” through- 
out this Canto, but to encourage his ancestor to further con- 
verse, uses the courteous “ you” in the next. 

99. “ Whose bells her still to old devotions call.” The same 
bells call to the same devotions, morning, noon, and night. 
It may be that a strain of satire lurks in the word “ call,” a 
call which Dante is intimating is too seldom obeyed. 

102. “ Their eyes’ sweet fire.’ Villani, Malespini, and 
Pippino, in their respective works, give charming pictures of 
the primitive manners of the early Florentines. Napier re- 
produces them in his valuable Florentine History. 


Canto XV. 315 


Notes. 








The ancient Florentines seem, indeed, to have well ex- 
emplified their Roman origin, and to be entitled to share the 
praises which Hannibal, in his soliloquy, gives to the parent 
state. See the soliloquy cited and translated in the notes to 
the Sixth Canto. 

109, 110. “ Monte Mario . . . Uccellatoio.” The hills named 
furnish fine views of the respective cities. The splendor of 
the public and private edifices of Florence has drawn, perhaps 
exaggerated, praise from Ariosto : 


*‘ While gazing on thy villa-covered hills, 
’T would seem as though the earth gvew palaces 
As she is wont by nature to bring forth 
Young shoots, and leafy plants, and flowering shrubs ; 
And if within one wall and single name 
Could be collected all thy scattered halls, 
Two Romes would scarcely form thy parallel.” 


112. “ Bellincion Berti.’ Wim Villani calls “the best and 
most honored gentleman of Florence.” In connection with 
his daughter, “the good Gualdrada,”’ we have met mention of 
this worthy Florentine in the Sixteenth Canto of the Inferno, 
line 38 and notes. 

115. “ Merli ... Vecchio’ Two of the wealthiest citizens 
of Florence. 

116. “ Simple jackets short.’ Smocks, not frock-coats. 

127, 128. “ Salterello . . . Cianghella.” Salterello, a pesti- 
lent lawyer, dissipated, and having a turn for poetry. Doubt- 
less Dante hated him both for his unprofessional methods 
and for his unpoetical verses. 

Monna Cianghella della Tosa was a gay widow of Dante’s 
time who gave occasion for unfavorable social comment. 

128. “ Cincinnatus . .. Cornelia.” Pure names, types of 
the Roman ideal. 

133. “ Mary.” The invocation to the Blessed Virgin in 
the pains of childbirth. We have already seen an allusion to 
this invocation in the Twentieth Canto of the Purgatorio, 
line 19. 

134. “ Baptistery.” That of Saint John’s, the cathedral 


316 3 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





church of Florence, known as the Duomo, which Dante calls 
elsewhere his beautiful Saint John’s. 

136, 137. “Folk:..in Val di Pado... thy surname 
and my wife.” The wife of Cacciaguida came from the Val 
di Pado, the Valley of the Po. Her family name was Al- 
dighieri, which, by the loss of the “d,” became shortened 
to Alighieri. This recalls the shortening of Dante’s given 
name from Durante to Dante. We find that, in the render- 
ing of the family name in Latin, it is “ Aligherii,” so that we 
may suppose that the original family name was “ Aldigherii,” 
the Aldigherians. The forms “ Aligherii” and “ Aligheri” 
suggest the “aligeri aves” with 


‘¢ All their sounding ranks of wings,”’ 


of the Twelfth Aineid, and the “ aligeri Amores,” the winged 
Gods of Love, of the Poemata, vii. 458, of C. Silius Italicus. 

139. “ Conrad.” The Emperor Conrad the Third, who 
belonged to the Suabian line. Frederick Barbarossa was ‘his 
nephew. Conrad joined the Second Crusade of which Saint 
Bernard was the great preacher. He died in 1152, after his 
return from the Crusade. 

143. “ Whose people.” Dante blames the inactivity, the 
lethargy, of the Christian powers, especially of the papacy, in 
his time. , 

148. “ And came from martyrdom unto this peace.” Having 
died for the faith, he was spared the pains and delays of 
Purgatory. It will be remembered that we have met with 
the same expression in the 129th line of the Tenth Paradiso, 
applied to the spirit of the exiled Boéthius who was by 
Theodoric (Dietrich) king of the Ostrogoths, “chased up 
into heaven ” for righteousness’ sake: 


‘*E da esilio venne a questa pace.” 
In the recent volume of the Poems of Pope Leo the Thir- 
teenth, I find his lines on Constantius, the Martyr-Saint of 


Perugia: 
‘* Te heroa, te fortissimum 
Efferre ccelo martyrem, 





Canto XV. 317 


Notes. 








Oblita laudes Czsarum, 
Turrena gestit canticis.” 


Translation : 


A hero thee and martyr bear to heaven, 

In pzans loud of praise, the tower-girt town ; 
While hushed the homage is by voices given, 
Whose jubilant words the deeds of Czsars crown. 


ea 


CANTO SIXTEENTH. 
i ARGUMENT: 


Dante, desiring to hear further from his relative, drops the 
“thou,” and courteously uses the plural “you,” a com- 
plaisance which brings from the listening Beatrice a smile, 
in the manner of the cough given by the Lady of Male- 
hault, when Lancelot kissed Queen Guenever, meaning 
“T hear you” reproachfully. Cacciaguida proceeds, and 
goes at large into his personal history and that of his con- 
temporaries, other illustrious Florentines, and endeavors 
to account for the misfortunes of Florence. 

Still the Heaven of Mars. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Dante. Cacciaguida. 


PERSONS APPEARING: Beatrice. The Virtues of the Heavens. 
Martyrs. Crusaders. 


O NoBLE blood, full oft a boast in vain, 
If thou to thee dost worldly homage draw, 
Where praise is not the ever-glorious law, 
Ne’er shall I marvel there to see thy reign ; 
For where ne’er live debased, perverted, aims, 
In heaven itself, I’ve readily owned thy claims ! 
But yet a cloak thou art that quickly time 
Makes shorter with his shears, as, day by day, 
Around thine edge, they, nimbly clipping, play. 


Canto XVI. 319 





The luminous Spirit. 





With You, first borne by Rome when in her prime 10 
But somewhat by her nations disused since, 
I once again addressed my family’s prime ; 

And Beatrice, distant but a little space, 
Smiling, resembled that good dame who coughed 
When Guenever gave of lapsing token soft. 

And thus I spoke: “ You are mine ancestor, grace 
Of yours to speak me bolder makes, and lifts 
Your favor me from my so humble rifts. 


‘So many rivulets fair with gladness swell 19 
My mind within, that joy I have that holds 
Its banks unburst the torrent it enfolds. 
Then me, mine honored root ancestral, tell 
Who were your ancestors great, and what, as 
boy, 
‘The scenes were that did your own eyes employ? 
Of Saint John’s sheepfold tell me, and each soul 
Therein, and of its size, and those who seats 
_ Most worthy had in its divine retreats.” 


As, at the breathing of the winds, a coal 28 
To flame is quickened, so, at compliments mine, 
This light began with heightened ray to shine, 

And, as more fair became its beauty, weaved 
More tender sweetness with its voice and ways, 
And me addressed, but not in modern phrase: 

“From when ‘ Hail, Mary!’ sounded till relieved 
My birth my mother, now a saint, of care 
And pain assuaged by many a holy prayer, 


320 Paradiso. 





Cacciaguida. 





“Unto its Lion had this star returned 37 
Five hundred fifty and thirty times, and seen 
Was, bright o’er all, his paw’s abundant sheen. 

Born my forefathers were and I where learned, 
First in the race, the last ward’s boundary, those 
Whose yearly rivalry yet in your game glows. 

Let this of them enough be; who they were, 

And whence they hither came, needs not to say; 
Than speech is silence oft the better way. 


** All those of age wherein men arms may bear, 44 
Betwixt Mars and the Baptist, the fifth part 
Of those were who now live in that their mart. 
But then the citizens’ blood, that now doth mar 
Campi’s, Certaldo’s and Figghine’s, flowed 
Pure to the humblest artisan’s chaste abode. 
O to have neighbors had, how better far, 
These people, and to have fixed your lines in 
peace 
Where Trespiano’s and Galuzzo’s cease, 


“Than have them in the town compelled to smell 55 
Aguglione’s stench and Signa’s churl’s, 
Who by no means are known as honor’s pearls. 
Had but the class which most degenerates, well 
Her duties to her son discharged, nor been 
But Czsar’s step-dame arrogant, sharp, and thin, 
Some who, as Florentines proud, discount and trade, 
Would have returned to Simifonte’s lanes, 
Where beggary helped their fathers’ sires to gains. 


Canto XVI. 321 





Degeneracy of Florence. . 





* At Montemurlo still the Counts had stayed, 64 
The Cerchi kept Acone, and maybe 
The Buondelmonti Valdigrieve’s lea. 

Of intermingled tribes a city full 

' Doth ever pestilent maladies therein brood, 
As doth in man varieties ill of food, 

And plunges further forward a blind bull 
Than a blind lamb; and often doth one lord, 
Better than five, exert his single sword. 


* On Urbisaglia, Luni, look thou back, 73 
How they are gone; and after them how go 
Chiusi and Sinigaglia, fast or slow; 

And then how races run to rot and wrack 

_ Will seem to thee no novel thing to hear, 
Seeing that even cities disappear. 

All things ye have are to mortality given, 

Even as yourselves; but ’t is concealed in some 
That long endure; and some deaths quickly come; 


“ And as, perpetually, the lunar heaven 82 
Covers and bares the shores, so Fortune deals 
With Florence, which alternate flood-tides feels. 

Therefore should none the tale with wonder awe 
Of those great Florentines, son, whom I recall, 
Whose fame was, in the hidden past, not small. 

I saw the Ughi, Catellini saw, 

Philippi, Greci, Ormani, Alberici, e’en 
In their decline illustrious, never mean. 


sag° os Paradiso. 





Her ancient Worthies. 





“ And great as ancient La Sanella’s lord, 91 
And Arca’s, chiefs like Soldanier, revered 
Ardinghi and Bostichi battle-seared. 

Over the gate, that like a ship aboard 
Hath of new felony taken load so great 
That jetsam from the bark must be such dias 

The Ravignani dwelt, in whom had start 
The Guido Counts, and whosoe’er the name 
Of great Bellincione since doth claim. 


“He of La Pressa knew the statesman’s art 100 

Already, and had Galigaio built 

His house, where hung his hilt and pommel gilt, 
The ermined column stood, Fifanti’s might, 

Sachetti’s, Giuocchi’s, names were famed, 

And theirs who blush to hear the bushel named. 
Galli, Barucci, and Calfucci’s bright 

Fair line, had risen; and curule chairs 

The Sizii and Arrigucci filled with cares, 


*“ How mighty them I saw, who _ since have 


wrought, 109 
Through pride, their own destruction! How 
her halls 


Showed Florence boastful of her Golden Balls! 
Such glory to her those her patriots brought 
Whose heirs, when vacant is your church’s see, 
Bide in consistory, fat with food and glee, 
The insolent race that shows a dragon’s greed 
T’wards him who flees, but t’wards the one who 
wrath 
Or gold them gives a lamb’s demeanor hath, 





Canto XVI. | 323 





Rings in the Borgo. 





“ Already rising was, though of low breed: 118 
Donati’s Ubertino felt disgrace 
That his wife’s sister married in that race, - 
From Fesole, too, had Caponsacco’s thrift 
Descended to the Market, and good men 
Were Giuda and Infangato reckoned then. 
’T is true, although it may thine eyelids lift: 
The narrow circuit of your walls its name 
Took from the Della Pera’s modest fame! 


** Each one, the beautiful heraldry fair that wears 127 
Of the great Baron, whose high name and halls 
The festival great of Thomas e’er recalls, 

Knighthood from him received, that man of prayers ; 
Though with the populace is to-day enrolled 
One who it bordered wears with lustrous gold. 

Had Gualterotti and Importuni rings 
Then in the Borgo, which would well have spared 
Such neighbors, had their feet elsewhither fared. 


“The house which you blood, death and mourning 


brings, 136 
Through just disdain in slaughter wreaked and 
strife, 


The sources sapping of your joyous life, 

Was honored in its company and its kin. 

~ O Buondelmonte, how could counsel teach 
Thee, rash, to make of marriage-promise breach! 

Sad sounds would now not stifle pleasure’s din 
Had God thee to the Ema given when curst 
Thy baleful presence our fair city first. 


324 Paradiso. 





Buondelmonte, 





“ But now had come of peace her latest hour, — 145 
And meet it was a victim to the stone 
Defaced which guards the bridge should bleed 
~ and groan. 
With families these and others and their power 
I Florence saw in such repose that ne’er 
Cause had she felt for grief, or strife, or care ; 
With all these families she had state displayed 
So just and glorious that was never placed 
Reversed the lily that her spear-head graced, 


“Nor by division’s strategy vermeil made.” 154 
> 


NOTES TO THE SIXTEENTH CANTO. 


25. “St. Fohn’s sheepfold.” The Church of Saint John’s, 
the cathedral of Florence. 

34, 38. “ From... till... times.” Between the date of 
the Annunciation and the date of Cacciaguida’s birth had 
intervened five hundred and eighty revolutions of Mars, 
each revolution being, according to Dante, in the Convito, 
somewhat less than two years. The birth of Cacciaguida 
was therefore in the year 1og1, and at the beginning of the 
Crusade, in which he fell fighting for the faith, he was in his 
fifty-seventh year. .A doubt haunted the interpretation of 
this passage, which yielded to the astronomical researches 
of Witte, and the familiarity enjoyed with all of Dante’s 
writings by King John of Saxony. 

37. “ Unto its Lion.” The royal commentator last named 
says that astrology made Mars one of the lords of the con- 
stellation Leo. 

41. “ Zhe last ward’s boundary.” The ward called “St. 
Peter’s Gate,’’ Porta San Pietro. In the Old Market in this 
ward Cacciaguida was born. The annual races were horse- 
races. 








Canto XVI. | 325 


Notes, 





47. “ Betwixt Mars and the Baptist.” That is, between the 
* Old Bridge,” Ponte Vecchio, and the Cathedral. 

so. “Campi... Certaldo... Figghine.” Villages near 
Florence whose inhabitants contaminated the ancient blood. 
Cacciaguida is saying that these people, as well as those of 
' Trespiano and Galuzzo, other villages, ought not to have 
been admitted to social equality with honest people, and that 
Florence should not have incorporated them in her territory. 
The remark is extended to two other villages, Aguglione and 
Signa, the former of which produced a virulent citizen named 
Baldo who had influence enough to obtain and perpetuate 
the decree that Dante should be burned. Thence the phrase 
“ Aguglione’s stench.” 

Simifonte, Montemurlo, Acone, and the Valley of the 
Grieve, are, a few lines further on, added to the unsavory 
list. | 

66, 140. “ Zhe Buondelmonti ... O Buondelmonte.’ In 
the year 1215, just a half-century before the birth of Dante, 
Buondelmonte, the then heir of this house, was engaged to a 
lady of the family of the Amadei. Passing, however, one 
day, the homestead of the Donati, he fell into conversation 
with a lady who would seem to have waited for an oppor- 
tunity to converse with him. This lady’s address and flat- 
teries persuaded him to promise himself to her daughter. 
The daughter was called, and gave her consent, and the 
wedding-ring intended for the other girl was then and there 
placed upon the finger of the new aspirant for this doubtful 
honor. The inconstancy of the fellow deserved reproach 
but not death. The friends of the jilted girl waylaid him 
(a frequent tableau in those times) and left him dead upon 
the highway. The desperate Mosca Lamberti led the attack. 
This assassination embroiled all Florence, and served well to 
give new point and edge to the ever-ready weapons held in 
the hands of Guelph and Ghibelline, Black and White, 
Church and State. 

72. “‘ Single sword.” Dante means imperial power, a single 
ruler, a principle in behalf of which he argues so zealously in 
his De Monarchia. 


326 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





73. “ Urbisaglia.” Were cities are named, formerly of im- 
portance, but now decayed: 


** Still as a city buried ’neath the sea, ... 
Idle as forms on wind-waved tapestry.” 
LowE Lt, To the Past. 


“Generations pass while some trees stand, and old families 
last not three oaks. . . . Oblivion is not to be bribed. The 
greater part must be content to be as though they had not 
been, to be found in the record of God, not in that of man.” 
Browne, Urz Burial, v. 

85. “ Zhe tale.” Dante, in the succeeding lines, is pleased 
to parade his accurate knowledge of the ancient families of 
Florence, and it may be presumed that, with his zest for 
political effect, nothing but the limits which he had pre- 
scribed for himself as to numbers of Cantos and lines in 
each, nothing but the necessity of condensation, prevented 
him from going into the detailed history of these ancient 
worthies. 

88, 89. “ Ughi, Alberici.” 

** What has become of Chihuapan? 
Quantzintecomptzin brave, 
And Cohualatzan, mighty man? 
Where are they? In the grave.” 
Mexican Poem. 


** Where is Napoleon the Great? God knows. 
Where little Castlereagh? The devil can tell. 
Where Grattan, Curran, Sheridan, all those 
Who held the bar or senate in their spell?” 
Byron. 


93. “ Gianni del Soldanier.” We have met Johnny among 
the traitors, in the Thirty-second Inferno. 

95. “ Bellincione.” Berti, always named with exalted eu- 
logy: Sixteenth Inferno; Fifteenth Paradiso. 
102. * Hilt and pommel gilt.” The insignia of knight- 
hood. ; . 
103. “ Column.” Weraldry of the Billi, or Pigli, family. 
105. “ Bushel.” The Chiaramontesi, one of whom, Durante, 





Canto XVI. 327 


Notes. 








a custom-house officer, falsified the bushel. Some say the 
offender was a member of the Tosinghi family. Dante makes 
allusion to this offence in Purgatorio, xii. 105. 

111. “ Golden Balls.” The heraldry of the family of the 
Lamberti, who found their “destruction” in the felonious 
act of Mosca Lamberti mentioned in a note just above. 

114. “ Bide in consistory, fat with food and glee.” Make 
themselves sure of a protracted frolic on each episcopal 
vacancy. This fashion has not yet expired. If it be nota 
fashion of the modern churchman, it certainly belongs to the 
methods of the modern juryman. He will hold his fellows 
out for days and nights, to offset his taxes by his per diem, 
and to eat meals furnished by cook-shop or tavern at the ex- 
pense of the county. 

115. “ Dragon ... lamb.” Dante’s lines here are fiercely 
onomatopoetic: 

** T? oltracotata schiatta, che s’ indraca 

Dietro a chi fugge, ed a chi mostra il dente, 

O ver la borsa, com’ agnel si placa.”’ 
And for good reason: Boccaccio Adimari, one of this family, 
got possession of Dante’s property in Florence when the Poet 
was banished, and always industriously opposed his return. 
Doubtless this robber of the absent had a good understand- 
ing with the torch-bearing Baldo. One of the Adimaris was 
“ Silver Philip,” to whom, it will be remembered, Dante has 
already administered a pointed rebuke in the Third Circle of 
Hell. Ubertino, of the Donati family, Dante says, felt dis- 
grace that his sister-in-law should marry into such a family 
as the Adimaris. 

121. “‘ Caponsacco.” The thrifty Caponsaccis lived in the 
Old Market, Mercato Vecchio. Ouxe of the daughters of this 
house was the wife of Folco Portinari and mother of Beatrice. 
We may imagine that the attitude of Beatrice lost none of 
its graces on hearing these praises of her mother’s kith and 
kin. 

124, 125. “ Zhine ... your.” Note that thee, thy, thine, 
mean Dante; your and yours the people of Florence. 


328 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





126. “ Della Pera’s modest fame.” A family of modest 
worth were so honored by their simple and worthy neighbors 
as to have their name applied, in those primitive times, to a 
division of the city. 

128, 129. “ Zhe great Baron... the festival great of Thomas.” 
The great Baron, “that man of prayers,” was the Marquis 
Hugo of Brandenburg. The festival was that of Saint 
Thomas the Apostle, December the twenty-first, on which 
day, of the year 1006, the great baron died. He was the 
ancestor, or patron, of five noble families who bore his 
heraldic insignia: the Pulci, Nerli, Giandonati, Gangalandi, 
and Della Bella. The latter family attached itself to the 
people, but yet retained its insignia, bordered with gold. 
Giano della Bella was the hero of one revolution, which has 
been already sketched in the notes to the conclusion of the 
Sixth Purgatorio. 

Giano della Bella was a man of great nobility of mind and 
breadth of statesmanship, a man of merit thrown upon times 
destitute of merit, but in which greatness shone the brighter 
for its dark surroundings. . 

133. “Rings in the Borgo.” Large iron rings in the walls 
of palaces, insignia of distinction and convenience, for the 
display of the banners or flags of the family, or party, or 
state. The flag-staffs are run through the rings, and lean 
from the wall. Below the rings are iron rests shaped so as 
to hold the ends of the flag-staffs. 

Among the notes of a visit in 1867 to Florence are found 
the following: 

“March zgth. Unusually fortress-like in appearance is 
the palace of Prince Stozzi; distinguished, too, it is by the 
large iron rings in the wall, and, below them, the rests for 
the banners.” 

136. “ Zhe house.” Of Amadei involved in the quarrel 
with the Buondelmonti. 

143. “ Zhe Ema.” “Blood, death, and mourning ” would 
not have “cursed our fair City,” if, on the day thou mad’st 
the journey from thy Castle of Montebuono, God had caused 
thee to be drowned in the intervening stream of the Ema. 


Canto X VI. 329 


Notes. 








146. “ Zhe stone.” Buondelmonte was murdered at the 
foot of “the stone defaced,” the mutilated statue of Mars on 
the Old Bridge, Ponte Vecchio, a victim to the God of War, 
the signal for the sacrifice of other victims. 

153. “ Zhe lily ... reversed ... vermeil.” After the ex- 
pulsion of the Ghibellines, the Guelphs changed the lily from 
white to red, and the field from red to white. Never was 
such a thing done in the days of the honorable renown of 
Florence. The remark serves to indicate that Dante desired 
here to proclaim himself a Ghibelline. 


CANTO SEVENTEENTH. 
ARGUMENT: 


Still encouraged by Beatrice, Dante urges Cacciaguida to 
forecast Dante’s own history; whereupon Cacciaguida 
foretells Dante’s expulsion from Florence, but urges him 
to write his whole vision, and all that he saw and heard in 
it, although his revelations may strike, like the winds, the 
proudest summits ; that is, he urges him to write the Com- 
media. It is noticeable that Dante, in urging this disclos- 
ure of the future, returns to the familiar, affectionate, and 
earnest “thou!” 

Still the Heaven of Mars. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Dante. Beatrice. Cacciaguida. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Virtues of the Heavens. Martyrs. 
Crusaders. 


SucH as the youth who brought to Clymene’s ear 
The question of his lineage and his fate, 
He who makes fathers their sons’ powers debate, 
E’en such was I, and such did I appear 
To Beatrice and that lamp of heavenly grace 
Who, to please me, at first had changed his place ; 
When thus my Lady: “Send thou forth the flame 
Of thy desire, so marked that we may feel 
It impress clear hath of the interior seal ; 


Canto XVII. 331 


Contingent Things. 





10 





“Not that our vision may have surer aim 
Thereby, but that thy thirst be made more clear, 


And men may mingle for thee when they hear.” 
“OQ mine own tree beloved! Thou that dost soar 
So high that, as, to minds terrene, ’tis plain 


That angles two obtuse no triangle will contain, 
So thou contingent things dost see, before 
They in themselves exist, thine eyes that Point 
Beholding, where all eyes become conjoint ! 
“T, while with Virgil I the Mountain sought 19 
Where souls are healed, or by him kindly led, 
Descended ’mongst: the souls whose hopes are 
dead, 
Alarmed as to my future history, caught 
Some grievous words ; although to Fortune’s 


blows 
I ready stand foursquared my force to oppose. 


But for this reason ’t is I have desire 
To know the worst, what doom me Fortune 


brings ; 
The shaft foreseen with less annoyance stings.” 


Thus did I say unto that 'sainted fire 28 
That unto me before had spoken; and e’en’ 
As Beatrice willed was my will plainly seen. 

Not phrases vain wherein the foolish folk 
Of old were snared, ere slain was man’s high Stay, 

The Lamb of God who taketh sins away, 


But language clear and unambiguous broke 
Forth from that love ancestral which concealed 


Was by its smile, a smile which it revealed : 


332 Paradiso. 





Cacciaguida prophetic. 





“‘ Contingency, whose volume hath no place 37 
Beyond your own material natures, seen 
Depicted is in God’s own mirrored scene, 

But yet necessity thence ye cannot trace 
More than, when seest thou sail a ship, it draws 
Necessity from thine eye as motion’s cause. 

From that high mirror, even as to the ear 
An organ’s harmonies come, comes to my sight 
The time that thou must meet with that thy might. 


** As forth from Athens fared Hippolytus drear 4 
His cruel step-dame’s victim, so must thou, 
Thy Florence leaving, to like injury bow. 

Already this is wished for, and is sought, 

And soon the wish shall into act unfold, 
There where each day Christ’s self is bought and 
sold. 

The just, as wont is, shall to blame be brought, 
But truth shall, in the vengeance it deals forth, 
A faithful witness find to its own worth. 


“Thou shalt each dearly-loved thing leave; O 
dread 55 
This arrow, ’tis the first that leaps the bow, 
And will thee teach how deep ’s an exile’s woe ! 
Thou shalt have proof what savor others’ bread 
Of salt doth have, and how ne’er harder road 
Walked man than stairs where strangers have 
abode. 
But that which most shall thy wronged shoulders gall 
Will be the bad and foolish company’s hail 
Which shall fall on thee in that straightened vale ; 


Canto XVII. 333 





War’s Darling. 





“For ingrate, all, aye, mad and impious, all, 64 
Shall they against thee turn ; but not long thence 
Their scarlet brows, not thine, will own the 

offence. 

The course they take of brutishness foul will win 
Their condemnation ; ’t will be well for thee, 
Therefore, a party by thyself to be. 

Thine earliest refuge, thine immediate inn, 

The courtesy of the Lombard great shall yield, 
On whose high ladder God’s own bird’s revealed. 


** He thee upon such kind regard shall shower, 73 
That ’twixt ye two the granting shall forerun 
The asking, which ’twixt men is rarely done. 

Him also shalt thou see who by this star 
So strongly, at his birth-hour, was impressed 
That as war’s darling he shall be caressed. 

Not yet do people know his latent power, 

So young he is, since for but nine years’ time 
Have these wheels round him rung their mighty 
chime. 


**But ere the Gascon shall great Harry cheat, 82 
Shall radiance some of his great worth unfold 
In labors great and in contempt for gold. 

So shall hereafter his magnificence greet 
The general eye, that e’en his foes compelled 
Shall be to own themselves by his deeds spelled. 

On him rely; his benefits will thee fence ; 

By him reversed shall lots of many be, 
Beggars shall ride, and rich men’s wealth shall 


flee ; 


334 Paradiso. 





Dante’s Vicissitudes. 


———" 





** And, written in thy mind, of him, bear hence, 9: 
But tell it not ” — (and things he said which stun 
_. All present shall, that such things could be done). 
Then, thus he spoke: “ My son, of things thou hast 
heard 
These the interpretations are; the snares behold 
Which revolutions few will soon unfold. 
Yet let not envy in thy soul be stirred, 
For doth thy life into the future pass 
Long after perfidies theirs shall them harass.” 


When by its silence showed that holy soul 100 

That it the woof had finished putting in, 

Into that web which by me warped had been, 
Began I, even as one whom doubts control, 

And who for kindly counsel deeply yearns 

From one who sees, and loves, and flattery spurns: 
“My Father, well I see how me to harm, 

Towards me strides the time with such a blow 

As heaviest him assails whose heart is low; 


* With foresight, therefore, well ’tis that I arm, 109 
That if from me the dearest place take wrongs, 
I may not lose the others by my songs. 
Down through the World of Infinite Bitterness led, 
And o’er the Mountain from whose perfumed 
height 
My Lady’s beauty led me with its light, 
And thence thus far through heaven’s high bril- 
liants sped, 
‘Things have I learned, which if I tell, they will 
Full many annoy and with resentment fill; _ 





; 
; 


Canto X VIT. 335 





Sunshine on golden Mirrors. 





“ And, if by treason to the truth restrained, 118 
I fear lest I my fame may lose with those 
Who this date oid will call as history grows.” 
The light wherein the treasure was contained 
Which I had found, with radiance flashed at first, 
As sunshine might on golden mirrors burst, 
Then said: “’Tis true a conscience dimmed by 
shame 
Of its own acts or others’ may find tart 
Thy words, and ’neath thy faithful censures 
smart ; 


“ But nevertheless make truth alone thine aim, 127 
And make the vision show its meanings rich, 
And just let them scratch whom afflicts the itch ; 

For if thy words at first be thought unkind, 

Yet they who it, the first taste passed, digest, 
Will thee, as furnishing vital nourishment, bless. 

For shall thy song so smite as smites the wind, 
Which doth the most exalted summits seek, 
And this doth for thee no slight honor speak. 


“« Thence shown to thee within these orbits here, 136 
Upon the Mountain, and in that sad Vale, 
Are only souls that Fame’s high sanctions hail ; 
For rests not one content when he doth hear, 
Until his faith is by an instance fixed 
Which not obscure is nor with queryings mixed, 
Or, for some cause, not manifestly clear.” 


336 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





NOTES TO THE SEVENTEENTH CANTO. 


1. “* The youth.” Phaéthon, son of Apollo, the Sun-God, 
and Clymene, an ocean-nymph. The boy had been publicly 
confronted with the insinuation that his origin was not divine. 
He sought his mother, that she might attest the truth. To 
the same youth his father trusted the guidance of the steeds 
of Heaven. The result was calamitous, and makes fathers 
“ debate” the powers of their sons. 

6. “ Had changed his place.” ‘The spirit of Cacciaguida 
had glided from the upper part of the cross to its foot, that 
he might the more readily converse with Dante. 

9. “ The interior seal.’ “Y am, beyond cavil, a son of 
Apollo; I, in this Canto, lay bare my soul; hereby will I draw 
the regards and the favor of dear Florence.” 

Dante thus stops, in the Central Canto of the Paradiso, in 
the midst of heaven, in the sphere of Mars, the abode of the 
spirits of holy warriors, martyrs, patriots, to address the Flor- 
entine people in a manner almost direct, sufficiently direct to 
let them know the purpose of his Poem, his hope thereby to 
pave the way for his return to their favor. 

12. “ That men may mingle for thee when they hear.” 
This line is Cary’s, and, as the present translator thinks, is 
not capable of improvement. It gives precisely the sense of 
Dante’s 

‘* Si che 1’ uom ti mesca,”’ 
13, 14. “ Zhou that dost soar so high.” 
** Si t’ insusi.” 
Thou dost so in-height’s thyself. Instances hereof have al- 
ready been given in a note to the Fourth Canto, line 28. 
Another may be cited in the Canto preceding the present 
one, line 115: “s’ indraca” that i#-Dragon’s ztself, turns itself 
into a Dragon. 
14. “ Zo minds terrene.” Thou beholdest events of the 


future as clearly as we recognize the most obvious proposi- 
tions in the exact sciences. 





Canto X VIT. 337 


Notes. 








17. “ That Point.” The final, loftiest height, God himself, © 
in whom all things past, present, and to come are mirrored, 
and who is beheld by all eyes in Paradise. 

23. “ Grievous words.” ‘The predictions of Farinata in the 
Tenth Inferno; of Latini in the Fifteenth; of Conrad Malas- 
pina in the Eighth Purgatorio, and of Oderigi in the Eleventh. 

24. “ Foursquared.” “ Always and everywhere the virtuous 
man bears peoapopnie and adverse fortune pententiy: asa 
perfect tetragon.” Aristotle, Ethics, i. 10. 

27: “ The shaft.” , 


“ Nam previsa minus ladere tela solent.”? (Proverb.) 
‘¢ Przvisus ante, mollior ictus venit.’? (Proverb.) 

*¢ Prazmonitus, premunitus.”? (Proverb.) 

** Forewarned, forearmed.” (Proverb.) 


28. “ That sainted fire.” The spirit of Cacciaguida. 

31. “ Phrases vain.” The ambiguous announcements of 
the ancient oracles, as: “ Aio te A©acide Romanos vincere 
posse ;” and another already given in these notes. 

35, 36. “Love ancestral... smile.’ The lustre of its 
smile ; the same lustre revealed its love — another character- 
istic of the body spiritual. 

37, 40. “ Contingency .. . necessity.” Dante would seem 
to have derived these phrases and this philosophy from Boé- 
thius, Consolations, v. 3. 

46. “ Hippolytus.’ Driven from Athens on account of the 
false accusations of Phzdra his step-mother. 

50. “ And soon.” The assumed date of the Poem is 1300, 
the expulsion came in 1302. 

53. “ Vengeance.” Dante led, or accompanied, an armed 
expedition against Florence. And vengeance may refer to 
the troubles of Pope Boniface resulting in his death in 1303, 
and in the removal of the pontifical see to Avignon in 1309. 

62. “ Zhe bad and foolish company.” “Incipit Comeedia 
Dantis Aligherii, Florentini, natione non moribus,” he is said 
to have written at the head of the first page of the Commedia, 
in chastisement of the abominable manners of his native 


‘place. But words must have seemed inadequate to set forth 


338 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





the rudeness and neglect of the darlings of society, the ill- 
bred, unlearned people, clothed with wealth, power, and con- 
ceit, whom he encountered abroad. 

71,72. “Lombard... ladder.” A red field whereon a 
golden ladder was surmounted by a black eagle, constituted 
the arms of the Lords della Scala. Bartolommeo and his 
younger brother, Can Grande, are here referred to by Dante, 
the latter succeeding to the lordship in 1311. The generalis- 
simo of the Ghibellines, Can Grande, made the exiled Flor- 
entines welcome to his court, his palace, his table. Dante’s 
Latin letter to him, genuine or not, is often quoted. The 
Can died in the midst of his campaigns, in 1329, thus surviv- 
ing Dante eight years. 

These Lombard noblemen were sons of Alberto della 
Scala. Dante alludes to him in the 12tst line of the Eight- 
eenth Purgatorio. He died in 1301, the next year after the 
assumed date of the Commedia, and a year preceding Dante’s 
banishment. 

76, 77, 78, 91. “ Star... darling... power... but tell 
it not.” “ History, tradition, and the after fortunes of Dante 
all agree that there was a rupture between him and Can 
Grande ; if it did not amount to a quarrel, there seems to 
have been some misunderstanding between the magnificent 
protector and his haughty client.” Balbo’s Life of Dante, 
Mrs. Bunsbury’s Tr. ii. 207. “ He at first was held in much 
honor by Can Grande, but afterwards he by degrees fell out - 
of favor, and day by day less pleased that lord.” Petrarch. 

82. “ The Gascon... Great Harry.” ‘The Gascon is Pope 
Clement the Fifth; Great Harry is Henry of Luxemburg, 
Henry the Seventh of Germany, Dante’s ideal statesman. 
Dante met him with much homage, on his arrival in Italy, in 
1310. 

110. “ Take wrongs.” ‘This line the translator purposely 
makes Sophoclean, capable of two constructions. 

114. “ Beauty.” “ Occhi,” eyes, is the Dantean text. But 
not alone the eyes, the smile, the countenance of _ Beatrice, 
exalted Dante, and made him fit for celestial converse. 





CANTO EIGHTEENTH : 


ARGUMENT: 


The bitterness in the prophecy of Cacciaguida is assuaged by 
the beauty and the words of Beatrice. Cacciaguida calls 
by name, and makes to appear in motion, among the stars 
which form or embellish the Cross, famous heroes. 

The beauty of Beatrice and of the Heavens increases, and 
Dante finds himself in the sixth Heaven, Jupiter, the abode 
of the souls of righteous rulers, and placed under the con- 
trol of the Dominions of the Heavens. There the beatified 
spirits gradually assume the form of an eagle. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Dante. Beatrice. Cacciaguida. Voices 
in song. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Virtues of the Heavens. Joshua, 
Maccabeus. Charlemagne. Orlando. William of Orange. 
Rinaldo. Godfrey. Guiscard. The Dominions of the 
Heavens. The spirits of righteous rulers. 


Now was that blessed spirit in its. word 
Rejoicing, and I, too, in mine; but meet, 
In mortal savoring, bitter things with sweet. 
And from my beauteous Guide to God I heard: 
“On other thoughts muse thou; think thou how 
He 
Near whom I dwell can from wrong’s burdens 
red," 
At these, my comfort’s usual accents dear, 
I turned me round, but that high love I leave 
Untold wherewith those eyes did me receive; 


340 Paradiso. 





The Smile of Beatrice. 





Not only that my words might fail I fear, 10 

But that, so far above its plane, might miss 

The unaided mind to imagine forth:such bliss. © 
Yet may I on this wonder this much say, 

That, as I now again upon her gazed, 

My heart felt every shrine but hers was razed. 
And while the eternal pleasure, which its ray 

Direct to Beatrice sent, from her fair face 

Made me content with its reflected grace, 


Me conquering with a smile’s gay golden shaft, 19 
She said: ‘More speech awaits thee, turn, and | 
own 
Thy Paradise rests not in mine eyes alone.” 
And even as here below is sometimes quaffed 
The affection in the look, if that the sight 
The soul intoxicate quite with rapt delight, 
So, by the flaming of the effulgence blest 
To which I turned, I saw that somewhat more 
It sought to say not touched upon before, 


And it began: “In this fifth place of rest 28 

Upon that tree whose life is from above, 

And aye bears fruit, nor loseth leaf nor love, 
Are spirits divine that lower, ere coveted ways 

They found t’wards Heaven, ’mongst men renown 

such had 

That them the Muses all would herald glad. 
Upon the cross’s arms do thou, then, gaze ; 

And each, as I shall name him, will there do 

As doth the levin in clouds it shineth through.” 





Canto XVIII. 341 


Crusaders. 








Joshua he named, and scarce was said the word 37 
Than flamed athwart the cross a splendor bright 
With purest scintillations fair of light ; 

And when the lofty Maccabee’s name was heard, 
Revolved another, caring not to stop, 

For gladness was the whip unto that top. 

So Charlemagne’s, and so Orlando’s name, 

Both at one moment, caught my wondering sight 
Intent as though it watched a falcon’s flight. 


Came William then, and Renouard flashing came, 46 
. And brilliantly Duke Godfrey shone, and graced 
Athwart that cross was Robert Guiscard’s haste, 
Then did depart, to join that army bright, 
The soul that had addressed me, and his part 
Took in the chorus high of heavenly art. 
Then unto Beatrice turned I, to the right, 
My course to learn as set forth by her word, 
Or from her queenly gestures kind inferred ; 


And clearness such of light shone in her eyes, . 55 
And pleasure such, that passed her countenance 
e’en 
What there, of wont, I had aforetime seen ; 
And as, by feeling higher his pleasure rise, 
A man from day to day becomes aware 
How good deeds him for higher abodes prepare, 
So saw I Heaven’s broad scope, and progress mine 
Made grandly greater, and adorned still more 
That miracle born mid Heaven’s high orbs to 
soar. 


342 Paradiso. 





The radiant Squadrons. 





And such as is the change in shadings fine 64 
That haunts a woman’s face when fades away 
The blush that on its bashful musings lay, 

Such did it, when I turned, appear to me, 

Its cause the whiteness of that temperate star, 
The sixth, which me claimed, lifted now thus far. 

And made that torch of Jove mine eyes to see 
The sparkling bands of love that therein flew 
Form speech, by flight through that orb’s stain- 

less hue. 


And as do birds lift from the shore the wing, 73 
And, joyed at their rich feeding, deftly drill, 
Now round, now long, their squadrons, stirred or 

still, 

So, from within those lights each sacred thing 
Flew, singing, here and there, and, as to tell 
Their meaning, formed now D, now I, now L. 

First, as they sung, they would their changes bring, 
Then, one becoming of the letters, stayed, 

And silent were, nor from that fixed form strayed. 


O Pegasean Muse, by whose nod floats 82 
To distant times fair genius’ wing which fame 
To states and cities gives of praise or.blame, 

-With thyself kindle me, that with thy notes, 

Those flights I may within my verses bring ; 
O let thy power me guide whilst them I sing! 

Formed thus the radiant squadron five times seven 

Of vowels and consonants ; them I treasured, 
caught 
As though to me had them their voices brought: 





Canto XVIII. 343 


The Eagle. 








“DELITGITEJ‘US TIT IAM,” thus spoke 
Heaven, gt 
And what begun thus was with noun and verb, 
6e QUT JUDICATIS*TER RAM +B] closed 
superb. 
And in the final M they fixed remained, 
So that, in that part, Jupiter’s white seemed rayed, 
Like silver wherein burnished gold ’s inlaid. 
Then other golden souls I saw had gained 
The summit of the M, and thence a song 
Sent to that Summit for whose heights they long. 


Then, as, when logs that burn one briskly smites, 100 
There rise innumerable sparks, whence fools 
Draw auguries deep and life-directing rules, 

Thence seemed to rise more than a thousand lights, 
And to ascend, some higher and lower some, 
Even as the Sun, their Fountain, bid them come. 

And as each one did in its place abide, 

Their form became an eagle’s neck and head, 
All formed of saints whence golden lustres sped. 


He there who paints hath none to be His guide, 109 
But Himself guides, and all the brilliant nest 
Doth own its form it hath from his behest. 

The sainted body that contented seemed 
At first a lily on the M to bloom 
The rest did of the eagle’s form assume. 

Sweet star serene! thy gems upon me beamed 
To show me that our justice here on earth 
Comes from thine heaven, comes from thy 

jewell’d worth ! 


344 Paradiso, 





The Sphere of Jupiter. 





Wherefore I pray that Mind whence have their 
source 118 
Thy motion and thy virtue, there to mark 
Where smoke thy rays hath troublous made and 
dark ; : 
So that again his anger have its course 
*Gainst those who in that temple buy and sell 
Which martyrdoms built and miracles designate 
well. 
Ye hosts of heaven, whose legion me confront, 
O beg ye grace for those in earthly fray 
All after ill example gone astray ! 


To war with swords in former times ’t was wont ; 127 
But now war ’s made by taking here and there 
The bread the pitying Lord refuses ne’er. 

Think thou, who writest but to cancel, they 
Who for this vineyard which thou spoilest died, 
Peter and Paul, do yet in life abide; 

“So strong my longing,” thus thou seem’st to say, 
“Ts unto him who solitude’s paths preferred, 
And went to martyrdom at a dancer’s word, 


“That Fisherman none I know nor Paul, to- 
day.” 


136 


NOTES TO THE EIGHTEENTH CANTO. 


2. “ Rejoicing.” Enjoying what Shakespeare, in his Thirtieth 
Sonnet, calls | 


“ The sessions of sweet silent thought.” 


Canto XVIII. 345 


Notes. 








8, 9. “J leave untold.” 


‘6 °T is a thing impossible, to frame 
Conceptions equal to the soul’s desires ; 
And the most difficult of tasks to keep 
Heights which the soul is competent to gain.” 
WorDSWORTH. 


37. “ Joshua.” The successor of Moses, in the leadership 
of Israel. Foshua i. 5. 

40. “ The lofty Maccabee.” Judas Maccabzus, so called 
from the Hebrew makkab,a hammer. 1 Maccabees iii, 2. 

42. “For gladness was the whip unto that top.” 

** Like to a top which boys 
Drive with the lash in spinning swiftness round, 
While it, urged keen, in circling spaces whirls, 
And it the youngster band amazed surveys, 
With wonder at the nimble box-wood filled, 
To which the lash lends life.’ 
; Seventh Eneid, 378. 

43. “Charlemagne .. . Orlando.’ Charlemagne is, in 
Turpin’s exaggerated Chronicles, ch. xx., following the medi- 
zval imagination, described as a giant in size, and of fabu- 
lous strength: “ He was so strong that he could, at a single 
blow, cleave asunder an armed soldier on horseback, from the 
head to the waist, azd the horse likewise. He easily vaulted 
over four horses standing abreast, and could raise, on his 
hand, an armed man from the ground to his head.” 

Charlemagne’s merits, moral and intellectual, should also 
not be forgotten. 

Orlando, the famous Paladin, phiia 3 in the battle of Ronces- 

valles, has inspired three epics, those of Pulci, Bojardo, and 
Ariosto. It was he that wielded the sword Durandel and the 
horn Olivant. 
46. “William ...and Renouard”? The Ottimo Com- 
. mento says this William was a Count of Orange in Provence. 
. It was said that he was taken prisoner and carried to Africa 
{ 





by the Moorish king, Tobaldo, whose wife Arabella he con- 
verted to Christianity, and afterwards eloped with. He must 
have been, however, an unattractive lover, if he was, as is 


346 Paradiso. 


Notes. 








alleged, identical with Guillaume au Court Nez, William of 
the Short Nose, so named because, in battle, a Saracen had 
eliminated that organ. He, however, fought for the faith, 
and finished his career as a holy hermit, earning the title of 
Saint William of the Desert. Butler and others incline to 
think him the ancestor of the princes of Orange who attained 
the throne of Holland. 

Renouard was, it is said, a Moor, a captive of Saint Louis, 
under whose instructions he embraced Christianity and his 
daughter Alice in matrimony. He, too, ended his career in 
holy orders. The old romancers say that as an ecclesiastic 
he clung not too closely to the fast and the vigil; but he has 
the endorsement of Dante. 

47. “ Duke Godfrey.” Of Bouillon, Duke of Lorraine, 
and leader of the First Crusade. Gibbon sketches his career 
in the fiifty-eighth chapter of the Decline and Fall, He assigns 
to him the highest rank in war and in council, and describes 
him as a worthy representative of Charlemagne, from whom 
he was descended in the female line. ‘‘ Godfrey,” Gibbon 
says, “was the first who ascended the walls of Rome; and 
his sickness, his vow, perhaps his remorse for bearing arms 
against the Pope, confirmed an early resolution of visiting 
the holy sepulchre, not as a pilgrim, but as a deliverer.” 
Valorous, prudent, pious, magnanimous, studious, he was a 
model, at once of the civic and of the warlike virtues. 

48. “ Robert Guiscard.” Founder of the kingdom of 
Naples, a sort of medizval Ulysses, and named Guiscard 
the Cusning, from his adroitness in diplomacy and adven- 
ture. An instance of his talent for strategy is given in con- 
nection with the history of Monte Cassino, in the notes to 
the Twenty-eighth Inferno. Gibbon says of him that even 
the reluctant praise of his foes has assigned to him heroic 
qualities. His voice has been compared to that of Achilles, 
which could impress obedience and terror amidst the tumult 
of battle. His eloquence has been compared to that of 
Cicero, which was equal to all the heights of statesmanship. 
He died fighting for the faith in an expedition against Con- 


. 
: 
: 
d 
| 
: 
; 





Canto XVIII. 347 


Notes. 








stantinople. Born about 1015, died 1085, his right to a place 
among the Crusaders rests on his fame as the liberator of 
Southern Italy from the dominion of the Saracens. 

52. “ Zo the right.” An intimation of Dante’s solicitude 
that nothing in Purgatory nor in Paradise should be sinister. 

63. “ That miracle.” Beatrice, to whom Dante more than 
once applies the term. In the Vita Nuova, for instance, he 
says, “ Many, when she had passed, said, ‘This is not a 
woman, rather is she one of the most beautiful angels of 
heaven.’ Others said, ‘She is a miracle. Blessed be the 
Lord who can perform such a marvel!’” In the Twenty- 
first Sonnet he treats of her eyes, her voice, and her smile: 


** What seems she when a little she doth smile 
Cannot be kept in mind, cannot be told, 
Such strange and gentle miracle is wrought.” 


78, 80. * Now D, now I, now L ... one.” They all joined 
in forming a single letter at a time. That letter being per- 
fect,so remained for a moment, and then was dissolved, that 
the next might be formed. 

82. “ O Pegasean Muse.” Calliope, the Muse of Epic Verse. 
The hoof-beat of Pegasus, a winged steed, bearer of the 
thunderbolts of Jupiter, or the arrows of Aurora, on Mount 
Helicon, produced the fountain named Hippocrene. Thence 
the Muses have their inspiration, and thence Dante gives 
them the title of Pegasean. And this title, in a special 
sense, belongs to the Muse of Heroic Poetry. 

84. “ Of praise or blame.” The Good Fame and Evil Fame 
of Virgil seem to be here intimated. 

91, 93. “ Diligite justitiam ... qui judicatis terram.” 
“Love righteousness, ye that be judges of the earth.” W%s- 
dom i. 1. 

102. “ Auguries deep.” Divination, in a childish way, by 
fire. Cowper describes fire-divination, not as with a burning 
brand, but with a scrap of paper: 

© So, when a child, as playful children use, 


Has burnt to tinder a stale last year’s news, 
The flame extinct, he views the roving fire, — 


348 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





‘ There goes my lady! and there goes the squire! 
There goes the parson! O illustrious spark! 
And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk! ? ”’ 


125. “ Earthly fray.” Another protest against the mad 
violence of the times. 

129. “ Zhe bread.” Refusal to administer the sacrament 
of the Lord’s Supper. 

130. “ Who writest but to cancel.” Some say that the words 
zpply to Boniface, who is supposed to be accused just be- 
low, and elsewhere, of an overweening fondness for money. 
Others say the words are used in allusion to the vacillating 
policy of Clement the Fifth. The intimation is held to be 
that Boniface cancelled for pay, that he practised simony. 

134. “Who solitude’s paths preferred.” The passage is 
satirical, and the meaning is, the image of Saint John the 
Baptist on the golden florin of Florence. See the descrip- 
tion and history of the florin in the notes to the Thirtieth In- 
ferno and Ninth Paradiso. 

136. “ Fisherman.” Saint Peter. 








CANTO NINETEENTH. 


ARGUMENT: 


Dante listens, in rapt attention, to the discourse of the Eagle 
-on the divine plan, and on events which are about to trans- 
pire in history. 

The Heaven of Jupiter. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Dante. The Eagle. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Dominions of the Heavens. Bea- 
trice. The spirits of righteous rulers. 


AnD now the Eagle’s wings before me gleamed, 
That bird of beauty which those jubilant souls 
Held interwoven in its feathery folds. 

A little ruby each of those souls seemed, 

And upon each the burning sun’s clear ray, 
Refracted, did in my glad vision play ;. 

And that which now to shape in words I seek, 
Ne’er voice hath said, it ink hath written not, 
Nor fancy’s shell e’er muttered in its grot ; 


350 Paradiso. 





Discourse of the Eagle. 





For speak I saw, and heard discourse, the beak ; 10 
And Zand JZy, not We and Our, of choice, 
Came all divinely from his glorious voice. 

“ Being just and merciful,” it said, “I here 
Exalted am to summits such that higher 
Cannot attain conception nor desire; 

And all the earth my memory doth revere, 

For precepts mine the wicked e’en commend, 
Although their lives they do not to them bend.” 


As doth from many embers one sole heat 19 
Itself make felt, so was, from out the bird, 
Sent from its beak, one sole discoursing heard. 

Wherefore I them: “ O flowers perennial, meet 
For Joy Eternal, that, in one breath sole, 
Exhale the odors that my heart control, 

By ye within me be the great fast riven 
Which hath in hunger held me long and long; 
Such potent food doth not to earth belong! 


“This well I know that if there be in heaven 28 
A realm whose mirror Justice high reflects, 
Yours every veil that might it dim rejects. 

By you my deep attention ’s understood, 

By you the doubt is known whose thirst hath me 
So long a prisoner held that would be free.” 

As doth a falcon, issuing from his hood, 

His head hold high, and make his wings him laud, 
When, beauteous, he desires to sail abroad, 





Canto XTX. i aoe 


Billows Billows race. 








So saw I that high ensign stir, which grand 37 
Was with Divinity’s self, and in its breast 
Held songs which know those realms and those 
so blest. 
And then it said: “ He who his compass placed 
Where ends earth’s verge, and who devised 
So much which see, and miss, our mortal eyes, 
Could not on all the universe wide such seal 
Of this omniscience make, but that should still 
Remain an excess infinite of His will. 


* And this the truth doth in clear light reveal, 46 
How fell earth’s paragon, victim first of prides 
For want of light to him as yet denied. 

And hence, each minor nature we must feel 
A scant receptacle is to measure Power, 

Which its own standard is, and owns no hour. 

Therefore your sight, which must its origin own 
As but a single ray of that Mind whence 
All things exist in spirit or in sense, 


“Cannot deny that Source from whence ’t is 
flown, 55 

Cannot but humbly grant that much concealed 
Exists beyond the things as yet revealed. 

And therefore ’t is that penetrate so men’s minds 
Into Eternal Justice, as the eye 
Doth into deepest parts of ocean pry; 

The eye the bottom near the margin finds, 
But none can scan where billows billows race, 
And yet ’t is there, and depth conceals its place. 


352 Paradiso. 





Human Reason, 





“Light none exists but what heaven’s lamps sup- 
ply ’ 64 

Lamps ne’er o’ercast ; else darkness ’t is, or shade 
Of fleshly pomp, or poison intellect-made. 

Wide open now that covert’s portals fly, 
Which hath from thee the living Justice hid, 
Of doubts whereof thy mind thou seek’st to rid. 

For thus thou saidst: ‘Suppose on Indus’ banks 
A man is born, and none is there who speaks : 
Of Christ, nor reads, nor writes, and that he seeks 


“* Right ways, and life accepts with reverent 
thanks, 73 
‘Our human reason saith that without sin 
His life was ended, and should honor win: 

But unbaptized he dieth, and void of faith; 
Where is the justice that condemns him! > Waat 
Fault can be his if he believeth not ?’ 

Now, who art thou that, as a chancellor, saith 
Thou seest aright, a thousand miles removed, 
An object, while a span your vision’s proved ? 


***T is true, with him who subtleties thus prefers, 82 
There might for doubting here be marvellous 
grounds, 
If Scripture did not fix well-outlined bounds. 
O flesh terrene, O intellect’s pride that errs, 
The primal Will, that good is ever shown, 
Ne’er from the Source of Good hath erring flown. 
So much is just as stands its faultless test ; 
It yields to influence none from good elsewhere, 
For its own rays make that divinely fair.” 








Canto XTX. 353 


God’s Judgments. 





Even as, when circling forth above her nest, or 
The stork, when she hath fed her little ones, flies, 
And watch her flight the birdlings’ well-pleased 

eyes, 

So rose my brows, so rose the bird divine, 

And, by such counsels urged, above my head 
Its glorious wings in circling motion sped, 

And sang: “ As are these very notes of mine 
To thy foiled mind, which of them hath no ken, 
So are God’s judgments unto mortal men.” 


Then paused the Holy Spirits’ splendors there, 100 
And kept their posts within that ensign’s lines, 
Whereby yet Romans hold in awe men’s minds, 

While it resumed: “ Unto this kingdom ne’er 

- Ascended one who hath not faith in Christ, | 
Before or since was put to death that Christ. 

But many, lo! there be, who call ‘ Christ, Christ,’ 
Who, at the judgment, lower place far may claim 
Than they who never heard his misused name. 


“Such Christians shall the Ethiop’s deed con- 


demn, 109 
When shall be severed those vast companies 
twain, 


To loss the one, the other endless gain. 

Well may the Persians e’en your kings contemn, 
When they that volume opened shall behold 
Wherein shall be their failings all enrolled. 

There shall be seen, among your Albert’s deeds, 
That which erelong shall move th’ historic pen 
When shall Prague’s realm become a desert fen. 


i 


354 Paradiso. 





Political Predictions. 





“There shall be seen the woe his false coin breeds 1:8 
Upon the Seine, he who his being must 
Surrender to a wild boar’s mighty thrust. 

There shall be seen the pride that causes strife, 
And makes the Scot and Englishman so thirst 
For mutual blood, they o’er their boundarie 

burst ; 

Be seen that luxury and effeminate life, 

The Spaniard’s bane, the base Bohemian’s bait, > 
He who e’er worth beheld with fevered hate ; 


“Be seen the Cripple of Jerusalem, 1 127 
His goodness representing, and an M 
The token of his vices and his phlegm ; 

Be seen the greedy deeds and covert done ; 
By him who guards the Isle of Fire, which blest 
Anchises, who sought there his needed rest; 

And let his record be in form that lacks 
All nobleness, like his own pitiful self, 

And let each letter lag, a limping elf. 


** And shall appear, to all, the unrighteous acts 136 
Whereby his uncle and his brother shame 
Gave noble lands, else worthy held of fame. 
And Portugal’s king, and he of Norway too, 
Shall there be known, and he of Rascia, born 
From forging coins of Venice to reap scorn. 
O Happy Hungary, if she wrongs ne’er knew 
B’yond these! Happy Navarre, if charmed by 
hills 
That gird her towers thus happily armed ’gainst 
ills. 





Canto XTX. 355 


National Calamities. 








“In earnest of that day, e’en now efface 145 
Would Nicosia and Famagosta crimes 
Which their own beast doth bring upon our times, 
While by the others’ flank he keeps due pace.” 


NOTES TO THE NINETEENTH CANTO. 


1. “ Wings.’ The neck and head had been already formed. 
See the preceding Canto, line 107. ‘ 

13. “ Fust and merciful.” A reminder that this, the sixth 
Heaven, is the sphere of Justice, and also that Justice should 
not be unattended by Mercy. 

40. “ Compass.’ “When he prepared the heavens, I was 
there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: 

. » when he strengthened the fountains of the deep... 
when he appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was 
by him.” Proverds viii. 27, 28, 29, 30. 

107. “ At the judgment.” Matthew vii. 21. 

109. “ The Ethiop’s deed.” “The men of Nineveh shall 
rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it.” 
Matthew xii. 41. 

115. “ Zhere shall be seen.” Remark the structure of line 
115 and the following twenty-six lines. “ Li si vedra,” and 
“ Vedrassi,” and “ E,” are repeated, each three times. Thus 
are made three groups of three tercets each, each group being 
distinguished by the initial word or letter of its tercets. 

115. “ Albert.” Albert I., Emperor of Germany, mentioned .- 
in the Sixth Purgatorio, line 97. 

117. “ Prague.’ The Eagle predicts Albert’s invasion of 
Bohemia in the year 1303, only three years after the assumed 
date of the Commedia. 

119. “Coin.” Philip the Fair of France, pressed by debt, 
fixed an increased value upon the coin of the realm. Philip 
came to his death in consequence of the sudden and violent 
fall of his horse to the ground occasioned by a wild boar run- 
ning between the horse’s legs, in 1314. 


356 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





122. “ The Scot and Englishman.” WDante here alludes to 
the border wars between John Baliol of Scotland and Edward 
I. of England. 

125. “ Spaniard... Bohemian.” ‘The Spaniard is by some 
of the commentators said to. be Alonzo the Tenth, by some 
to be one of the Alphonsos. It is said his death was caused 
by intemperance. The Bohemian is Winceslaus the Second, 
the son of Ottocar, mentioned in the Seventh Purgatorio as 
a luxurious monarch. 

27. “ Cripple.” Charles the Second, King of Apulia and 
Jerusalem, who was lame. 

131. “Lsle of Fire... Anchises.” Sicily was called “the 
Isle of Fire” from Mt. Etna, and the allusion is supposed to 
be to Frederic, son of Peter of Aragon, who held, or claimed, 
jurisdiction over Sicily. The O/timo gives him praise, and 
it is by some supposed that Dante condemned him because 
he abandoned the Imperial cause. : 

In Steny. Anchises died: 

“* Hence me receives 
Dread Drepanum’s port and joyless shore. For here, 
By such stress driven, and tempests of the sea, 
I lose, alas! my father, him the stay 
Of every care and hurt, Anchises dear.” 
Third ineid, 707. 

137. “Uncle... brother.” The uncle of the Sicilian king 
was James, King of the Balearic Islands. He joined Philip 
the Bold of France in his disastrous invasion of Catalonia, 
an invasion which resulted in the loss of his own crown. 

The brother was James of Aragon. He gave up Sicily 
which his father had acquired. 

139. “ Portugal ... Norway.” The Portuguese monarch 
is said to have been a contemporary of Dante, and to have 
held the throne from 1279 to 1325. He seems to have been 
inclined to the pursuits of peace, and*not inclined to venture 
on crusades. The commentators generally condemn Dante’s 
censure of this king. 

The Norwegian is unknown. Sie John of Saxony, with 
Witte, thinks it may be Eric the priest-hater, or Hakon 
Longshanks, 





Canto XIX. 357 





Notes, 





140. “ Rascia.” Or Ragusa, a city of Dalmatia. The allu- 
sion here is to Uroscius II. who married a daughter of the 
Emperor Michael Palzologus, and counterfeited the coin of 
Venice. 

142. “ Hungary.” Here are denounced, according to the 
Ottimo Commento, a series of profligate kings, the contrast 
to whom was afforded in Dante’s own time by the exemplary 
character of King Andrea. , 

143. “ Mavarre.” The charm of her “hills,” the Pyrenees, 
failed to preserve her from the ambition of Philip the Fair of 
France, who claimed the sovereignty in right of his marriage 
with Jeanne, granddaughter of King Thibault. The mention 
of Navarre is a thrust at Philip. Thibault is probably the 
crusader and poet of that name whom, with Dante, we wor- 
shipped, in the Twenty-second Inferno, as “Thibault, King 
adored.” 

147. “ Beast.” Benvenuto inveighs against the “ meretri- 
cious, lewd, and fetid” manners of the people of Cyprus. 

148. “ Zhe others.” That is, the other vicious kings. 

148. “ Departeth not.” This closing portion of the dis- 
course of the Eagle may be considered, in a sort, a Dantean 
Dies Ire. A review of the European political situation 
seems to embarrass it, at the expense of the lofty generaliza- 
tions which might have characterized it, and which distinguish 
the work of the writer of the Dies Ire (be he Franciscan 
monk or sainted pope), the great religious lyric of the genera- 
tion preceding that of Dante, for the Dies Ire is supposed to 
have found its way to paper about fifteen years before his 
birth. 


CANTO TWENTIETH. 
- ARGUMENT: 


Songs of ravishing sweetness break forth from the blessed 
spirits, after which the Eagle continues his discourse, show- 
ing forth the merits of Riphas, Trajan, and other righteous 
rulers. 

Still the Heaven of Jupiter. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Dante. The Eagle. Voices in song. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Dominions of the Heavens. Bea- 
trice. The spirits of David, Trajan, Hezekiah, Constantine, 
William of Sicily, and other righteous rulers. Faith. Hope. 
Charity. 


WHEN he who to the world dispenses light 
Beyond our hemisphere’s are so far descends 
That on all sides the glimmering daylight ends, 

The heaven, that erewhile he alone made bright, 
Itself again doth suddenly now reveal 
Through many lights which his rays’ splendors 

feel. 

And to my mind was brought this heavenly scene 
When silence came upon that blessed beak 
Whence light the world and all its leaders seek, 


Canto XX. 359 





A River’s Murmur. 





Because those living stars of heaven were seen 10 
To grow in beauty, and did songs begin 
Which thought and memory fail again to win. 
O gentle Love, thus by a smile inspired, 
How lustrous in those gems didst thou appear 
Filled with high thoughts as water fills the mere! 
After those crystals so in light attired 
With which this sixth orb was begemmed, there 
fell. 
Silence at length on each angelic bell. 


And then I seemed the murmuring deep to hear 19 
A river gives when, from a mountain’s head, 
O’er shelving rocks, its sparkling waves are led. 

And as the gradual sound attains the ear 
The lute’s neck yields, or breath that seeks to fill 
The shepherd’s pipe with its responsive thrill, 

Even thus, but with more readiness, seemed to seek 
The eagle’s neck that murmuring of the bird 
Now as if through a hollow opening heard. 


There it became a voice, and left its beak 28 
In words which on my waiting heart I then 
Wrote fully forth with adamant-pointed pen. 

“That part in me which sees and bears the sun 
In mortal eagles,” such the words were, “place 
Thine eyes upon, and its divisions trace. 

For of the fires whence all mine outline ’s won, 
Those whence mine eye doth sparkle place 

supreme 
O’er all the rest assume and brightest beam. 


360 Paradiso. 





The Eagle’s further Discourse. 





“* He who, as pupil, in the midst doth shine 37 
Sung once the Holy Spirit’s song, and bore 
The ark about, and all its wondrous store. 

Now knoweth he, glad, that those his songs divine, 
As far as from his own design they soared, 
Have here attained their fitting, fair reward. 

Of five who round the interior circle dwell 
The one that nearest is unto my beak 
The widow heard her son’s cause pleading meek ; 


“And now he of two opposite states can tell: 46 
How sharp to abandon Christ the penalty falls ; 
How sweet the bliss that him to Paradise calls. 

He that is seen in the superior arc 
Of that circumference, death postponed and fear 
By reverent deeds and penitence all sincere. 

Now knoweth he well that ne’er through errors dark 


The eternal judgment wanders, though through | 


prayer 
To-day may to to-morrow send its care. 


“He who next follows, with the laws and me, 55 
Bad fruit producing where he good did seek, 
By ceding to the Pastor, reigned a Greek. 

And that now harms him not, he well can see, 
The ill from his good action brought, although 
The world thereby may to destruction go. 

And he who in the inferior arc hath place 
Was William, whom the self-same land laments 
Which tears-on Charles and Frederick living 

vents, 








: ( UN! VERSITY | 
\ OF 
C NIA: 
Canto X ES ALIFOR 





Like as a Lark. 





“Now know’th he how turns heaven’s approving 
face 64 

T’wards justice in a king; and, in that glow 
Effulgent his, he gives it outward show. 

Who would, in man’s vain earth, deem such the case, 
That in this arc the Trojan Riphaas’ soul 
Could be the fifth? No man can see the whole 

Of heavenly grace; but now knoweth he how awed 
Will be his sight who that grace seeks to sound 
Whereof the bottom never can be found.” 


Like as a lark that drives its wings abroad, 73 
And sings, but then to silence falls, content 
With its last sweetness with the echoes blent, 

Such seemed to me that image whereon threw 
The eternal pleasure its own image, glad 
All beauteous things to see divinely clad. 

And notwithstanding that my doubt a hue 
Me gave as tint a color gives to glass, 

It grudged that should an idle moment pass, 


But from my lips “ What things are these?” its 
might 82 
Extorted, whereupon of joy increased 
Gave to my sight the heavens a glorious feast. 
And while the eye showed yet a brighter light 
Response to me the blessed standard made, 
That I might not in wonderment be delayed : 
‘“‘T see that thou belief herein dost claim 
On my word only, but that reasons none | 
For thy belief are by thy musings won. 


362 Paradiso. 





Living Hope. 





“ Thy thought as his is who a thing by name __r, 
Conceiveth clearly, but its quiddity lurks 
Unknown until another’s reason works. 

Heaven’s kingdom violence suffereth from deep 

love 
And from that living hope that Heaven doth scale 
And even God’s own volition doth assail. 

Not as man conquereth man is it above, 

For there the conquest’s sought, a thing of choice, 
And Heaven’s the conqueror by its loving voice. 


“The first life and the fifth whom thou dost see _ 100 
Give thee astonishment much because in them 
The angels’ region picture finds and gem. 

Not as thou deem’st were they from earth set free 
Gentiles, but Christians in the faith made fast 
Of suffering feet, to come, or in the past. 

For one from Hell, where no one turns back e’er 
Unto good will, unto his bones returned, 

And that by hope, as its reward, was earned, 


“ By living hope that placed its power in prayer, — 109 
In prayers to God made to restore him where 
His will might act and have its purpose fair. 

The glorious soul, my speech’s present aim, 

Unto the flesh returned, and while it stayed 
Had faith sincere in His all-powerful aid ; 

And, in believing, rose unto such flame 
Of generous love that, at the second death, 
Worthy it was of heaven to breathe the breath. 





Canto XX. 363 


Redemption. 








“The other, through the riches of that grace 18 
That from so deep a Fountain wells, no soul 
Hath reached the primal wave from whence they 

roll, 

On justice set his mind, t’wards right his face, 
Wherefore in fine did God to him unclose 
The Source Divine whence our redemption flows, 

Wherein believing he from that day forth 
The stench of paganism suffered not, and lands 
Reproved that t’wards it raised adoring hands. 


“Those at the right-hand wheel thou sawest, of 
worth 127 

Exalted, Maidens three, his baptism great 
Became, a thousand years ere baptism’s date. 

O thou predestination! ever far 
Thy root is from those eyes which, seeing, fail 
‘To see entire the First Cause they so hail! 

And ye, O mortals, give yourselves a bar 
In judging ; for ourselves, who God behold, 
Know that to ourselves the elect are not all told; 


“‘And unto us this deprivation ’s sweet, 136 

Because in God’s good we our good fulfill, 
For what He wills that do we also will.” 

| Thus did that shape divine me meet and greet, 
And, to extend the shortness of my sight, 
A pleasant medicine give with all delight ; 

-And, as we sometimes see the music reach 
From voice to lute, whose chords accordant move, 
Whereby the song doth more delightful prove, 








364 Paradiso. 
Joy. 
So, while the voice spake, I recall that each 145 
Of those blest lights, as eye with eye winks, 
danced, 


With flamelets joyous, as the arrows glanced, 
Which from the quiver came of that high speech, 


NOTES TO THE TWENTIETH CANTO. 


32> 44, 55, 61, 08. “ He whoas pupil... the one that nearest 

is unto my beak ...in the superior arc... hewho next follows 

. in the inferior arc... Trojan Riphaus.” King David 
brought the Ark of the Covenant from Kirjathjearim to the 
house of Obed-Edom, and thence to Jerusalem, as related in 
the sixth chapter of the Second Book of Samuel. 

The one nearest the beak is the Emperor Trajan, who 
owed his place in Paradise to the prayers of Saint Gregory. 
The story of the poor widow has been given in the Tenth 
Purgatorio. 

He in the superior arc is King Hezekiah. Isaiah cured 
him with a lump of figs laid on the boil; and to show his 
power with God, turned the shadow on the dial of Ahaz ten 
degrees backward; and God granted Hezekiah fifteen added 
years of life, as a reward of prayer and faith; as related in 
the twentieth chapter of the Second Book of Kings. 

The next is Constantine who transferred the imperial 
throne, laws, and standard to Byzantium, a city under Greek 
influences. 

He in the inferior arc is the lamented William the Second, 
surnamed the Good, son of Robert Guiscard, and King of 
Apulia and Sicily, kingdoms which, in Dante’s time, were 
deploring the rulership of Charles the Lame, the “Cripple 
of Jerusalem,” King of Apulia, and Frederick of Aragon, 
King of Sicily. 2 

Trojan Riphas. In a Canto devoted to the realm of 
Justice there seems a peculiar appropriateness in making 
prominent Virgil’s “ Most just of Trojan men.” 





Canio XX. 365 


Notes. 








40. “ Now knoweth he.” “Ora cognosce”’ is repeated after 
the mention of each of the worthies of the Eagle’s eye. 

41. “As far as from his own design they soared.” 

* In quanto effetto fu del suo consilio.” 
And partly from inspiration of God? Is here a hint of 
Dante’s idea as to the character and extent of scriptural in- 
spiration ? ; 

57. “ Ceding to the Pastor.” In continuation of a note to 
the Nineteenth Inferno, it might be added that there seems 
to be a mooted point as to what was the extent of Con- 
stantine’s benefactions to the see of Rome. They certainly 
extended to lavish munificence towards the city; they in- 
cluded gifts of the Basilicas of Saint John Lateran, Saint 
Peter’s, and other splendid structures, and of means for their 
adornment. But it seems to be on all sides admitted that 
Dante’s phrase “ cedére ” (ceded) should. not be understood 
in the sense of an absence from Rome brought about by un- 
pleasant relations with the “ Pastor,” the Supreme Pontiff, 
or by ambition on the part of the Pastor. 

On the contrary, those lines of Constantine’s career which 
are most salient show that the establishment of the seat of 
government at Byzantium was, as Gibbon shows, dictated by 
Constantine’s own ambition and his personal convenience. 
He was, himself, in some sort, an Asiatic, a native of a 
Danubian province; he had been placed in power by Britain, 
and he had but a low estimate of Italy. “The country of 
the Czsars was viewed by Constantine with cold indifference, 
and the senate and people of Rome were seldom honored 
with the presence of their sovereign.” Decline and Fall, 
chap. xvii. The same historian (chap. xiv.) records that 
“Tréves, Milan, Aquileia, Sirmium, Naissus, and Thessa- 
lonica were the occasional places of his residence, till he 
founded a New Rome on the confines of Europe and Asia.” 
It may be added that he, perhaps, desired a capital which 
should. bear his name, a City of Constantine; and, indeed, 
he may have shared in Czesar’s Asiatic leaning to rebuild, at 
his leisure, the City of Troy as the Capital of the Empire. 


366 Paradiso. 


_ Notes. 








Dante’s criticism on what is known in history or fable as 
the “ Donation of Constantine,” is that, while it redounds to 
his credit as an act springing from generous religious im- 
pulses, it was followed by ill results. 

85. “ Zhe eye.’ Only one eye of the Eagle is seen; the 
head is, therefore, in profile; and we may well suppose that, 
with Dante’s disposition to avoid things sinister, he gives the 
dexter eye. 

94. “ Heaven’s kingdom violence suffereth.” “From the 
days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven 
suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.” A/atthew 
xi. 12. 

100. “ The first... and the fifth.” Trajan and Riphais. 

105. “Suffering feet.” 


“ Therefore, friends, 
As far as to the sepulchre of Christ 
(Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross, 
We are impressed and engaged to fight), 
Forthwith a power of English shall we levy, 
Whose arms were moulded in their mothers’ wombs 
To chase these pagans in those holy fields 
Over whose acres walked those blessed feet, 
Which, fourteen hundred years ago, were nailed, 
For our advantage, to the bitter cross.”’ 

King Henry IV.i. 1. 


106, 107, 108, 109, III, 114, 116, 117. “ One from Hell... 
veturned ...hope...in prayer... will... faith...at the 
second death... heaven.” In the Lower World Trajan’s will 
was depraved, and of no efficacy towards reversing the eternal 
doom: he was there without hope. The legend is, that, four 
hundred years after his death, the prayers of Saint Gregory 
effected his restoration to life, permitted efficacy to his 
heavenward will, and that he, then, after baptism, dying 
again, was admitted into Paradise. Mention of this legend, 
it will be remembered, has already been made in the note to 
line 73 of the Tenth Purgatorio. 

118. “ Zhe other.’ Riphass. 

128. “ Maidens three.” Faith, Hope; and Charity. 





Canto XX. 367 


Notes. 








130. “O thou predestination.” “ Hath not the potter power 
over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto 
honor, and another unto dishonor?” Romans ix. 21. 

148. “ That high speech.” UHere the work closed, it is said, 
until Dante returned to the earth to point out, in a vision, to 
his son, the place where the remaining thirteen Cantos were 
to be found. The story is among the Illustrations to Long- 
fellow’s Inferno. 


CANTO TWENTY-FIRST. 
ARGUMENT : 


Beatrice reminds Dante that they are now wafted into the 
Seventh Heaven, the sphere of Saturn, father of the Age 
of Gold, the abode of the spirits.of.the.centemplative, and 
placed under the control of the Thrones of the Heavens. 
There silence prevailed, and, although her beauty is in- 
creased, Beatrice wore no smile. Dante is permitted to 
converse with Saint Peter Damian, who explains the silence, 
and imparts to the Poet his personal history and his reflec- 
tions on the reigning Pope, Boniface the Eighth. After 
his discourse, a deafening outbreak of shouts from admir- 
ing spirits who gather around the saint disturbs the silence. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Dante. Damian. An outbreak of 
shouts. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Thrones of the Heavens. The 
spirits of the contemplative. Beatrice. 


AGAIN upon my Lady’s face mine eyes 
Were bent, and with them all my mind, for nought 
Beside her face mine eyes or musings sought ; 
And she smiled not; and said she of this guise: 
“Were I to smile thou wouldst like Semele burn, 
Thou wouldst, like her, to lifeless ashes turn. 
Because my beauty, that, as higher we mount 
The stairs of this eternal palace, grows, 
As thou hast seen, now with such glory glows 





Canto XXT. 369 


The Sphere of Saturn. 








“That, unreduced, it thee would nimbly count 10 
’Gainst its effulgence, as the leaf smote down 
What time the thunder leaps from skies that 

frown. 

Uplifted we the seventh great splendor find, 

That neath the burning Lion’s breast a shower 
Of radiance sends commingled with his power. 

Let seek thine eyes the same view as thy mind, 
And of them make a mirror for the scene 
That in this mirror’s field shall come serene.” 


He who could know how richly I had fed 19 
Upon her blessed countenance, thus employed 
In other care wherein I so much joyed, 

Would comprehend how willingly I was led 
To obey the mandate of my heavenly guide, 

By weighing one against the other side. 

Within that crystal which, as through space rolled, 
Bears that loved monarch’s earthly name sublime 
’Neath whom vice died ’midst early births of 

Time, 


Like radiant sunshine crowned with bars of Gold 2s 
A ladder I beheld to such a height 
Uplifted, that it ’scaped my vision’s might. 
And down the steps descending such display 
Of splendors saw I, that I thought the lamps 
Of all the heavens had ordered there their camps. 
And as together rooks at break of day, 
As is their wont, themselves with liveliness fill 
To warm their feathers damped with morning’s 
chill, 


370 Paradiso. 





The sparkling Army. 





Then some fly off to seek the distant air, 37 
Others return to points they left, while wheel 
Others around, and love of home reveal ; 

Such fashion it appeared to me was there, 

Soon as that sparkling army’s feet had found 
Of that clear ladder’s length a certain round. 

And one that lingered near us waxed so bright 
That said my thought: “TI see, by this true sign, 
That thou a kindness dost to me design, 


‘“‘ But she from whom I guidance seek and light, 46 
In speech and silence, standeth still, whence word 
From me, though anxious, shall not now be heard.” 

She thereupon, who saw my musing mood 
In sight of Him whose sight is infinite, said : 
“‘Let thy warm wish through thy words’ path be 

led.” 

And I: “No worth wherewith my soul ’s imbued 
Me worthy renders of thine answer, yet 
For her good sake who hath my wishes met, 


“‘Blest soul, whom thy beautitude doth conceal, 55 
Make known, that I may it devoutly hear, 
What cause hath brought thee unto me so near ; 
And tell me why the symphony sweet this wheel 
Of Paradise lacks which through the rest below 
Doth with such deep and rapt intentness flow.” 
“Thy vision thou, as hearing, mortal hast,” 
It answer made to me: “ For that same cause 
That Beatrice hath not smiled, from speech we 
pause. 





Canto XX. : 371 


Saint Peter Damian. 








“ Downward thus far have I descending passed 64 
This ladder rounds but with my words to greet 
Thy presence here, and with my joy to meet ; 

Not that doth me invite excess of love, 

For greater love in loftier orbits burns, 
As well to thee this flaming ladder learns, 

But this the Charity high that rules above 
To me allots, the Charity that we serve 
With promptitude glad, as thine own eyes ob- 

serve.” 


* Full well I see,” I said, ‘‘O lamp divine! 73 
How in this court love’s fetters.none doth need 
To follow where doth infinite Providence lead ; 

But this is what is hard to thoughts of mine, 
Wherefore unto this service thou alone 
Predestined wert; my wondering here I own.” 

Scarce had I ended when, as in a mill 
A stone is whirled, around its centre, so, 

In revolution swift, this lamp did glow. 


Then answer made the love that it did fill : 82 
“'T’wards me directed is a light supreme 
Piercing this lamp from which extends my beam ; 

My vision joined therewith so far lifts me 
Above myself, I gaze the essence on 
Wherefrom my lustre, feebler far, is drawn. 

Hence comes my lustre’s joy, which thou dost see, 
For with my vision’s clearness keepeth pace 
This radiant joy, and makes an equal race. 


372 . Paradiso. 





The eternal Statute. 





“ But none can answer questions such as this; 91 
No soul that doth through highest summits soar, 
No Seraph most intent God’s face to adore ; 

Because what thou dost ask hath so in th’ abyss 
Of the eternal statute its deep place 
That none can here the true construction trace. 

And when the mortal world thou dost regain 
This there report, that t’wards so distant end 
The feet of man may ne’er presume to tend. 


“Earth wraps in mist the mind that here doth 
reign 3 Ico 
There will its strength in vain to that be given 
Which ne’er for it can find e’en helping Heaven.” 
Such limit by that spirit’s words was fixed 
That I the question urged no more, but name 
And state I humbly sought of that blest flame. 
“Cliffs rise, each shore of Italy’s bounds betwixt, 
And not far distant from my native place, 
And high beyond where leaves the levin its trace. 


“They there a ridge form, Catria called, and reach 109 
An hermitage o’er, an holy place of prayer, 
Where rites divine and worship have due care.” 

This was the third time it me offered speech, 

And then, continuing, thus it said: “ Therein 
Unto his service God did me so win, 

That, on the juice of olives merely fed, 

I easily passed the heats and frosts away, 
Content midst heavenly musings there to stay. 





Canto XX. 373 





The degenerate Clergy. 





From that same cloister oft to heaven were sped 1:8 
Celestial souls, but now ’t is empty grown, 
So that it must itself soon worldly own. 

I in that place was Peter Damian ; claimed, 
On th’ Adriatic shore, Our Lady’s shrine 
Peter the Sinner also name of mine. 

My mortal strength was greatly shorn and tamed 
When sought I was and to the hat drawn forth 
That still recedes from bad to worse in worth. 


“ Lean and barefooted Cephas came, and came 127 
The Holy Spirit’s mighty vessel, food 
Content to have from any tavern rude. 

The modern shepherds on each side will claim 
They need support, and, heavy, must be led, 
And by train-holders meek their way be sped. 

Their cloaks conceal their palfreys when they ride, 
So both the beasts are covered with one skin ; 
O Patience, that hast so long-suffering been! ” 


Hereon I many little flames descried, 136 
Who, now revolving, gleamed from round to 
round, 


And, as their motion went, were fairer found. 
The space about this spirit then they filled, 

And forth so loud a shout gave that it here 

Could find no parallel fit, nor was I clear 
What it might be, so me its thunder thrilled. 


374 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





NOTES TO THE TWENTY-FIRST CANTO. 

1. “ Again upon my Lady’s face.” In preparation for the 
ascent to another sphere. 

5. “Semele.” Granddaughter of Mars and Venus, and 
daughter of Cadmus and Hermione, and mother of Bacchus, 
she was beloved by Jupiter. Through her own curiosity, 
and the jealous management of Juno, Jupiter presented him- 
self to her, clothed with his attributes of the Thunderer of 
the Skies. The mortal sank before the immortal; the pres- 
ence of the terrible God was fatal to the divinely-descended 
maid, and the woman expired amidst the lightnings. 

14. “ The burning Lion.” ‘The Constellation Leo, Saturn 
was now in the sign of the Lion. 

19. “ How richly 1 had fed.” 

“ La pastura 
Del viso mio nell’ aspetto beato.”? 


The word “pastura ” seems far-fetched, unless we consider 
its direct application, and renewal of reference, to the story 
of Glaucus in the First Canto. As Glaucus became a God 
by pasturing on the sea-weed, so Dante ascends to heaven by 
feasting on the countenance of Beatrice. 


‘* A lily-girl, not made for this world’s pain, 
With brown, soft hair, close-braided by her ears, 
And longing eyes half-veiled by dreamy tears, 
Like bluest water seen through mists of rain ; 
Pale cheeks whereon no love hath left its stain, 
Red under-lip drawn in for fear of love, 
And white throat— whiter than the silvered dove — 
Through whose wan marble creeps one purple vein ; 
Yet, though my lips shall praise her without cease, 
Even to kiss her feet I am not béld, 
Being o’ershadowed by the wings of awe, 
Like Dante, when he stood with Beatrice 
Beneath the flaming Lion’s breast, and saw 
The Seventh Crystal, and the Stair of Gold.”’ 

Oscar WILDE. 


Canto X.X1. 375 


Notes. 











28. “ Bars of Gold.” An evident allusion to the Age of 


Gold. 
** Which to the fields 
Well ruled of Latium Saturn once did bring.” 
Sixth Atneid, 793. 


** The iron race shall cease, 
And, wide throughout all lands, a golden one 
Shall rise.” 
The Pollio, 5. 
43, 121. “ And one ... Peter Damian.” Born 988. Died 
1072. The day of his death is given as the twenty-second of 
February. His anniversary in the calendar is the twenty- 
third. He supported, with vigor and effect, the reformations 
inaugurated by Hildebrand (Pope Gregory the Seventh), and 
thereby incurred the enmity of the clergy of Milan, who 
availed themselves of the opportunity of his mission thither 
to set on foot against him a persecution. But the reformer 
gloried in his divine warfare, and, even in his old age, sub- 
jected himself to the voluntary discipline of fastings, vigils, 
and tortures. 
44. “ By this true sign.” 
* Above, delight is in effulgence shown, 
As on the earth in laughter.” 
Ninth Paradiso, 7o. 
46. “ But she.” Beatrice. 
79. “Asina mill.’ We have met with the same simile at 
the beginning of the Twelfth Canto: 


“ Began to feel 
The sacred millstone impulse strong to wheel.”’ 


95. “ The eternal statute.” 


“ Perocché si s’ innoltra nell abisso 
Dell’ eterno statuto quel che chiedi.”’ 

106. “ Cliffs rise”” Mount Catria, “the giant of the Apen- 
nines,” is here described, the site of the monastery of Santa 
Croce di Fonte Avellana, founded by the blessed Ludolph 
about twenty years before it saw Saint Peter Damian. Here 


376 | Paradiso. 





Notes. 





Dante received hospitable entertainment in 1318, three years 
before the end of his Poem and his life. As may well be 
supposed, Troya and Ampére lingered long and lovingly at 
Avellana. 

122, 123. “ Peter the Sinner also name of mine.” This the 
translation purposely makes equivocal, as Dante’s passage is 
equivocal. Peter Onesti of Ravenna was another “ Peter the 
Sinner,” but whether Dante alludes to him here is matter of 
controversy. It depends on the question whether Dante 
wrote “fui” (I was) or “fu” (he was). Of twenty-eight com- 
mentators consulted by Barlow fourteen were arrayed against 
fourteen. . 

125. “ Zhe hat.” His hat as Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia. 

127. “ Cephas.” Saint Peter. ohn i. 42. 

128. “ Vessel.” Saint Paul. Acts ix. 15. 

129. “From any tavern rude.” 


** Prendendo il cibo di qualunque ostello.” 


“ The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, 
Behold a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber, a friend of pub- 
licans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.” 
Matthew xi. 19. 

134. “ Both the oe ” It seems observable that these 
sarcasms are calculated to be all the more effective, because 
made to come from the mouth of an ecclesiastic. 

135. “ O Patience.” 

** T like divine simplicity 
In men who handle things divine.” 
Cowrer. 

“Simplicity tends towards God, whom alone it seeks to 
please; it renders us like to God, who is a being supremely 
and essentially simple.” Saint Vincent de Paul. 

We may in part imagine the annoyance which could not 
otherwise than be experienced by a brilliant man like Dante, 
accustomed to profound and serious thought, and compelled 
to listen with apparent approval to sermons horrible with 
absurdities or repulsive with improprieties. We have all 











heard such sermons, but we have not all suffered from them 


as acutely as did Dante. 


140. “ 4 shout.’ The applause was deafening, and, we may 


_ suppose, was, in great part, from happy ecclesiastics. 


a 


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ye a eee 


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oz 


a 


CANTO TWENTY-SECOND. 
ARGUMENT: 


Saint Benedict addresses Dante on the personal history of 
the saint, and on the monastic state. 

At the close of the saint’s discourse Dante and Beatrice 
ascend with incredible swiftness to the eighth Heaven, the 
sphere of the Fixed Stars, the abode of the spirits of the 
metaphysicians and of the triumphal hosts of Christ, and 
placed under the control of the Cherubim. There Bea- 
trice directs his eye upon the path of the planets which 
they have traversed, and the earth and its satellite reduced 
to mere points in space. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Saint Benedict. Dante. Beatrice. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Thrones of the Heavens. The 
spirits of the contemplative. The Cherubim. The spirits 
of the metaphysicians. The triumphal hosts. 


DAZED with amazement, I unto my Guide 

Turned me as turns a little child whose fright 

There drives him where is chiefly his delight ; 
And she, as would a mother who denied 

Ne’er comfort to her pale and breathless boy, 

In tones her soothing voice was wont to employ, 
Said sweetly: “ Knowest thou not thou art in 

heaven ? 
And knowest thou not that all is holy here, 
And nought is done unless through zeal sincere? 


+ 


Canto X XT. 379 


The Sword of Heaven. 








“Think now what unto thee their songs have 
given, us 
And smiles of mine, and changed thyself wilt find, 
But, more abruptly, by their shouts designed ; 
Prayers more than shouts, which didst thou com- 
prehend, 
Thou wouldst already know the vengeance 
doomed 
To meet thine eyes before thou art entombed. 
The sword of heaven doth smite, but doth not send, 
Or slow or swift, its timely stroke, howe’er 
He who it waits may dwell in trust or care. 


* But elsewhere now I bid thee turn thy view, 19 
And thou illustrious spirits enough shalt see, 
If shall thy view by me dictated be.” 

None other precept than her wish I knew; 
And saw of little spheres an hundred rayed 
With mutual beauties by them each displayed. 

I stood as,one who, fearing to presume, 
Keeps down the point of his desire, and waits 
To question later what his mind debates, 


But earned my word exultant victory’s plume, 28 
When t’wards me came the pearl most large of all 
And lustrous, thus his history to recall : 

“Tf thou couldst see,” I from within it heard, 

“‘ As well as I, that burning charity ours, 
Thy curiosity soon had shown its powers ; 

But that thy hope may not now be deferred, 
But may the high end reach of thy desire, 
I will thee serve as herald and as squire. 


380 Paradiso. 





Saint Benedict. 





“ That lofty crag whose slope Cassino shows 37 
A people on its summit held of old 
Whom haughtiness and delusion all controlled; 

And I am he who first to that height rose 
The name of Him to announce who in good time 
The truths proclaimed which mortals make sub- 

lime. 

And on me poured such copious floods of grace 
That all the neighboring towns my counsel took, 
And, glad, that impious worship old forsook. 


“‘ Within each fire thou seest doth find its place 46 
A soul contemplative, by that heat’s powers — 
Enkindled which fruits brings from holy flowers. 

Here is Macarius, Romualdus here, 

Here are my brethren who the cloisters’ pale 
Kept steadfastly midst joys that ne’er should 
fail.” 

And I to him: “Thy kindness shows sincere 
In this thy speech ; and the sweet welcome bright, 
Which gives to all your flames increase of light, 


“Hath raised in me such confidence as the rose 55 
Doth from the sun receive when spreads in grace 
Its consummate flower before his glorious face. 

And, therefore, this I pray, and that oppose 
The same thou wilt not, father, I beseech, 

That to thy soul unveiled mine eyes may reach.” 

He thereupon : “ Brother, thy high desire 
Shall find fulfilment in the loftiest plane, 

Where such shall mine and every other gain. 





Canto XX1T. 3a 


- His neglected Rule. 








“There perfect is, and ripened, and entire 64 
Our every aim; within that plane alone 
Doth every part its former station own. 

For bounds it hath not fixed, nor on poles turns, 
And unto it our ladder leads the way, 
Whence thus doth from thy sight its summit 

stray. 

The Patriarch Jacob saw it as it burns 
To loftiest heights, what time to him it came 
So thronged with angels, joy, and heavenly flame. 


“ But now its lofty leading to attain 73 
None stirs or feet or soul, and rests the toil 
My Rule enjoins, mere parchment-rolls to soil. 
Mine Abbey, that of old the heavens would gain, 
A cave is now, and sacks of flour ill-milled 
The cowls, that once were with such holiness 
filled. 
For heavy usury doth not take its toll 
So much against God’s liking, as demands 
Their foolish monkish avarice lately plans. 


** And whatsoever doth the Church control 82 
Should be for those who ask it in God’s name, 
And not for kin’s sake or some cause of shame ; 

So very soft is found the flesh of man 
That fails a good beginning down below 
Before the infant oak may acorns grow. 

Peter with gold nor silver none began ; 

My Rule on prayers’ and fastings’ power I based ; 
His convent Francis with meek lowliness graced ; 


382 . Paradiso. 





The Sphere of the Fixed Stars. 





“‘ But if, when thou hast such one’s outset learned, 91 

Thou his career wilt onward follow down, 

The white thou shalt behold dimmed into brown. 
In very truth the Jordan backward turned ; 

And was the Sea’s flight ’neath God’s mandate 

more 

A wonder than that help should reach our door.” 
Thus unto me he said; and then he sought 

His brethren, and with them his light combined ; 

Then all swept upward like an eddying wind. 


Behind them o’er that ladder’s rounds was 
brought 100 
Myself, when gave the gentle Lady sign, 
So virtue hers did conquer nature mine. 
No natural motion here, or up or down, 
Velocity such acquires, which way it fare, 
As may with my swift upward flight compare. 
Reader, as I my pilgrimage hope to crown 
With blest return to that high triumph pressed 
On all my thoughts when, sad, I beat my breast, 


Thou hadst not thrust thy finger in the fire, 109 
And drawn it thence, before, being so impelled, 
The sign next Taurus saw I, that me held. 

O glorious stars! O Light that hath attire 
Of mighty virtue! Ye from whom I claim 
My genius all, whatever be its name! 

With you arose, and with you sought his couch, 
He who is parent of all life below, 

When first on me thy Tuscan beams did glow ; 


Canto XXII. _ 383 


Last Salvation. 











And when permission grace did me avouch 118 
The lofty wheel your revolutions own 
To enter, mine, at once, was your sphere known. 
To you devoutly sends my soul this hour 
Its sighs, that it may calmly, firmly, meet 
The gloomy pass which first its course must 
greet. 
‘So near’s thy last salvation’s hope and tower,” 
Said Beatrice, “that thou shouldst now eyes have 
keen 
And clear for what may by thee there be seen ; 


“ And, therefore, ere thy further path ’s pursued, 127 
Look downward, and the vast worlds see below, 
That, passed already, ’neath thy rising, glow: 

So that thine heart may, in its fittest mood, 
Behold, rejoicing through this realm, the throng 
Which here will soon triumphant pour along.” 

And my returning sight again addressed 
The orbits seven, and I this globe beheld 
So small a thing that it my smile compelled ; 


And I esteem that estimate of it best 136 
Which doth it least regard; and him whose thought 
Seeks other themes as by true wisdom taught. 

The daughter of Latona saw I shine 
Without that halo which I once believed 
It had from rare and dense effects received. 

I felt, Hyperion, on this face of mine 
Thy son’s hot sheen, and saw how moves he 

round 
Where Maia’s and Dione’s stars are found. 


384. Paradiso. 





The planetary System. 





I saw the temperate orb of Jove appear 145 
’Twixt son and father, and I noted well 
Their changes and the planes wherein they dwell ; 
And of all seven it was tome most clear 
How each in relative bulk compared and speed, 
And how, though distant, they combined proceed. 
The threshing-floor wherefor we such pride own, 
By me from hill to harbor was discerned, 
As with the immortal Twins I there was turned ; 


Then sought I glad, those beauteous eyes alone. 154 


NOTES TO THE TWENTY-SECOND CANTO, 


7. “In heaven.” In an especial and exalted sense, having 
passed beyond the bounds of our system, and entering upon 
the Infinite Beyond. / 

14. “ The vengeance.” It is supposed that this refers to 
the troubles of Pope Boniface the Eighth, his death, and the 
removal of the pontifical see from Rome. All these events 
occurred between the assumed date of the Poem and the 
death of Dante. 

26. “ Point.” “ Punta.” Just below, it will be claimed 
that this word is used by Dante in its military sense. In line 
16 he has just used a military metaphor: “the sword of 
heaven.” 

28. “ Victory’s plume.” A military metaphor following 
the military metaphor of Dante just above. 

32. “ As herald and as squire.’ Other military metaphors 
following the military metaphor of Dante at line 26. 

37. “ Slope.” In any mention of this mountain and its sur- 
roundings, attention should be drawn to its three divisions, 
base, slope, and summit. Each of these has its several his- 
tory. At the base was a Roman amphitheatre, and is, at pres- 
ent, the town of San Germano, a station on the railroad 





Canto XX. 385 


Notes. 








connecting Rome and Naples, and equidistant from both. 
On the slope, whence strategy afforded the choice of a sortie 
on the plain or a retreat to the summit, stood the ancient 
town of Casinum, now extinct, its material, in large part, 
probably, having been removed to the summit in the Middle 
Ages. Onthe summit of this “ heaven-kissing hill” was 
found by Saint Benedict, in the year 529, an ancient temple 
devoted, even at that advanced date, to the worship of Apollo. 
This temple, as Pope Saint Gregory the Great has, with great 
animation of style, recorded (in the Second Book of his Dias 
logues, chapter viii.), Saint Benedict, who illustrated the maxim 
‘“Jaborare est orare,” utilized, establishing, in its place, the 
shrines of Saint Martin and Saint John. The valley is that 
of the Liris River, now called the Garigliano, and the view 
_ from the summit shines with points interesting in history. 
The industry of its inhabitants has given this part of Italy 
the name of. the Land of Labor, Terra di Lavoro. Yonder 
you see Arpinum, the birthplace of Cicero; yonder Aquinum, 
that of Juvenal, and the scene of the school-days of the An- 
gelical Doctor, Saint Thomas. 


“ Beautiful valley ! through whose verdant meads 
Unheard the Garigliano glides along ; — 
The Liris, nurse of rushes and of reeds, 
The river taciturn of classic song. 


And there, uplifted, like a passing cloud, 
That pauses on a mountain summit high, 
Monte Cassino’s convent rears its proud 
And venerable walls against the sky.” 
LONGFELLOw. 


40. “Zam he.” Saint Benedict, 480-543. In early youth 
he adopted the life of a recluse among the mountains of 
Subiaco, the scene, afterwards, of immense and successful 
labors on his part. Object of the jealousy and hatred of 
other ecclesiastics, he was now Abbot of Vicovara, now es- 
tablished at Subiaco, now driven therefrom, at last an adven- 
turer at Monte Cassino. Here he gave evidence of the pos- 
session of gifts in the supernatural order. Here 


386 Paradiso. 





Notes, 





** His pen become a clarion, and his school 
Flamed like a beacon in the midnight air.”” 

Muratori and Dantier devote many admirable pages to the 
history of this saint and his princely institution. “ Law- 
giver and Patriarch,” Montalembert calls him, “ of the Monks 
of the West.” 

49. “ Macarius . . . Romualdus.” Saint Macarius was the 
founder of the monastic rule in the East as early as the year 
335. He derived infinite consolations from self-inflicted tor- 
tures. 

Saint Romualdus was the founder of the order of Camal- 
doli or reformed Benedictines. Born about 956. The legend 
says that he attained the age of one hundred and twenty ; 
and that in 1466, nearly four hundred years after his death, 
his body was found still uncorrupted; but that, when stolen 
from its tomb, four years afterwards, it turned into dust in 
the hands of its sacrilegious disturbers. 

67. “ Bounds it hath not fixed.” That is, the extent up- 
wards of the Empyrean is infinite. 

67. “ Mor on poles turns.” That is, is immovable, a region 
of perfect repose. The Italian text is peculiar: does not im- 
pole itself, “non s’ impola.” This serves to remind us of the 
other similar phrases already remarked upon: in-eaven, in- 
me, in-thee, and one or two others. 

70. “ Jacob.” Genesis xxviii. 

77, 79. “A cave... flour ill-milled” “ Spelonche”... 
“ria farina.” “ Robber” caves, and sacks of “ miserable” 
flour, are the terms usually employed by the translators. 
Personal observation of the majestic site of the Abbey of 
Monte Cassino would have left none of them in doubt as 
to the meaning of “spelonche” in Dante’s use of the term. 
It was used by him in contrast to that magnificent elevation, 
the most superb in the world, whereon the Abbey is situate, 
the summit of Monte Cassino; where, in Saint Benedict’s 
time, the character of the monks corresponded with the to- 
pographical elevation of their monastery. Flour ill-milled, 
rather, than “miserable.” It may not be declared fasti- 
dious to think that the use of “miserable” ‘in dignified 


Canto XXII. 387 


Notes. 








rhetoric works a certain disparagement to its good effect. 
The thrust at avarice was presumably suggested to Dante by 
historical facts. The abbots, at one time, possessed the 
power of courts civil and criminal. These jurisdictions were, 
under certain abbots, felt as a heavy yoke. Here is ma- 
terial for the argument against the mingling of civil and re- 
ligious jurisdictions, and doubtless Dante had all this well in 
view. ; 

11l. “ The sign next Taurus.” The sign next Taurus is 
that of Gemini, the Twins. It was under this constellation 
that Dante was born, on the 14th of May, 1265. On that day 
the sun entered this constellation. King John of Saxony, fol- 

lowing the astrologers, says that under the influence of the 
Gemini were “ learned men, poets, and prophets.” 

119, 120, 124. “ The lofty wheel... to enter... thy last 
salvation.” And he only this moment entered it; and thus 
hastens to claim it as his ultimate Heaven, his sphere in sal- 
vation. . 

132. “ Triumphant pour along.” Dante thus indicates the 
approach of the triumph of Saint Peter, which will be de- 
scribed at the close of the next Canto. 

141. “ Maia’s and Dione's stars.” The planets Mercury 
and Venus. Mercury was the son of Maia; Venus was the 
daughter of Dione. 

151. “ The threshing-floor.”’ A convenient simile for a spot 
comparatively smajl. The threshing-floors of the Mediter- 
ranean countries are circular, and the circular shape may 
have made Dante think the threshing-floor a suitable simile. 
The present translator well remembers them, made of neatly- 
arranged flat stones. One is prettily visible from an ancient 
watch-tower on one of the loftiest walls of Hyéres. 

Basing an estimate on the zodiacal signs mentioned by 
Dante, it seems safe to conclude that he was somewhat, say 
about twenty degrees, to the eastward of Jerusalem. A 
diagram at the close of the Twenty-seventh Canto will ex- 
plain the meaning of this remark in a clearer and fuller 
manner than can be conveniently done by the use of words. 


CANTO TWENTY-THIRD. 


ARGUMENT: 


Here the beams of a Sun, Christ, shone with a splendor 
which Dante’s sight could not endure, and the heavenly 
vision was lifted higher up, to spare his overburdened 
powers. But the smile of Beatrice returned, Dante’s pow- 
ers now being prepared for its splendors. Beatrice points 
out to him the star representing the Blessed Virgin and 
the torch representing Gabriel; and melodies are heard of 
exquisite sweetness; and these splendors and melodies are 
declared by Dante to be a triumph introducing the appear- 
ance of Saint Peter. 

The Heaven of the Fixed Stars. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: The triumphal hosts in song. Date 
Beatrice. 


PERSONS APPEARING: Rays descending from Christ. A star 
representing the Blessed Virgin. A torch representing 
Gabriel. The Apostles. 


Even as a bird, the leaves beloved among, 
Quiet upon the nest her sweet brood holds, 
Throughout the night which, darkling, us enfolds, 
Who, that the grateful eye, the twittering tongue, 
May greet her once again, and that, employed 
In cares for them, she food may find enjoyed, 
Leaps to a spray, prevenient of the time, 
And there, above their couch, with ardent hess: 
Strains her fond gaze to watch dawn’s gates 
apart : 








Canto XXIII. 389 


Christ’s triumphal Hosts. 








Even thus my Lady standing was, sublime 10 
Upon her shining light from Southern skies, 
Erect and vigilant she, with love-lit eyes ; 

So that, beholding her with wondering still, 

Such I became as one who loving yearns, 
And in whom hope appeases that him burns. 

But brief the space was When to When did fill, . 
And not long waited I to see once more 
Heaven more resplendent grow in roof and floor. 


And Beatrice exclaimed: ‘“‘The march behold 19 

_ Of Christ’s triumphal hosts, and all the grain 
Thy harvests in these rolling lustres gain!” 

It seemed to me that o’er her face flame rolled, 
And shone so full of ecstasy pure her eyes 
That, by them tried, my power of painting dies. 

As in the calm, full moon, when Trivia smiles 
Among the nymphs eternal who the sky 

_ With splendor tint through all its depths on high, 


I saw above the lamps of myriad miles 28 
A Sun that o’er them all a radiance shed 
As from our own o’er all our scenes are sped ; 
And through the living light shone forth so clear 
The lustrous substance, that bore not my might 
Its power intense, but failed the o’erwearied 
sight. 
“O Beatrice, thou my gentle Guide and dear!” 
Then she: “The Splendor that now o’er thee 
trails 
A Virtue is ’gainst which no shield avails. 


390 Paradiso. 





Wisdom and Power. 





“ The Wisdom and the Power are here that 


heaven 37 
And earth betwixt the thoroughfares oped, 
wherefor 


So long yearned men awaiting to adore.” 
As fire from out a cloud unlocked is given 
Forth to the earth, because it doth dilate, 
And that the cloud no longer holds its freight, 
So did my mind, on aliments such fed large, 
Forth issue from itself, and what it then 
- Became, in wandering, is beyond my ken. 


“Thine eyes now open, my bewildered charge; 46 
Things glorious thou hast seen which them 
prepare C 

The lesser splendors of my smile to bear.” 

I was as one when a forgotten dream 
His mind recovers partially, but, then, shrinks. 
The fairy fragment, nor reveals its links, 

When I this greeting heard ; nor shall the stream 
Of grateful feelings cease which mine it made, _ 
Nor happiness such from memory’s records fade. 


If should be turned to praises every tongue 55 
That Polyhymnia and her sisters nursed 
With milk delicious deigned to poets’ thirst, 

Not of the truth a thousandth part were sung 
Of homage due that sacred smile, nor hue 
Of peerless beauty her expression knew. 

And thus, in figuring Paradise, forth must leap 
The sacred Poem o’er the chasm wide 
Before its path, or own its powers defied ; 


Canto XXTIT. 301 





‘The stupendous Theme. 





And whoso such a theme upheld would keep, — 4 
Should not a mortal shoulder blame if weight 
Like this should tremblings bring howe’er elate ; 

No lakelet is it for a tiny boat, 

This mere my daring prow doth dash aside ; 
Here must the pilot’s every nérve be tried. 

“Why on my face do thus thy fancies float, 

That thou no heed hast for the garden fair 
Which, ’neath Christ’s rays, doth such rare blos- 
somings bear? 


“The Rose is there, wherein the Word Divine 73 
Incarnate was; and there the lilies bloom 
Which showed the Good Way by their sweet 

perfume.” 

Thus Beatrice blest ; and I, whose guidance mine 
Hers ever was, myself began to arouse 
To bear the battle of the feeble brows. 

As have ere now mine eyes, in shadow held, 

Seen through a fractured cloud the sun’s pure ray 
On ray in jubilance o’er a meadow play, 





So, seeing not the source my being spelled, 82 
I hosts of trooping splendors saw, which light, 
Sent from above, made more divinely bright. 

O thou kind Power, whose light so on them broke, 
Thou didst thyself exalt more scope to give 
To eyes of mine that could not otherwise live ! 

The name of that fair Flower I e’er invoke 
Morning and evening, gave my soul in thrall 
To gaze upon the greater fire of all. 


392 Paradiso, 





Mary and Gabriel. 





And when in both mine eyes the living flame — 9 
Of that high Star whose glories there excel 
As did they here, had formed its semblance well, 
Lo! from within the sky a torchlet came, 
And, in its radiant progress circling down, 
Around it formed of fire a beauteous crown. 
Whatever melody sounds on earth most sweet, 
And most entrances there the listening soul, 
Might seem a torn cloud through which thunders 
roll, 


Compared unto the sounds those heavens did 
greet : 100 

When crowned that lyre the sapphire’s beauty, far 
In jewell’d skies denoting e’er that Star: 

**T Love Angelic am, whose circling glow 
The joy attends which breathes from out the womb 
That gave to our Desire its inn and room; 

And circle shall I, Lady of Heaven, so, 
While still thy Son thou followest, and increased 
By thy blest presence is this heavenly feast.” 


Thus did the circling melody find its close ; 109 
And, as it ended, all the lights beside 
The strain took up and MARY’S name spread 
wide. 
The robe that o’er space universal flows, 
And. fervid more than all is with the life 
The immediate breath of God there maketh rife, 
O’er us its inner border spread so far 
That where I was the semblance of it yet 
Had not with its clear folds my vision met, 





Canto XXIII. 393 


Heavenly Harvests. 








Therefore did not mine eyes possess the power 1:8 
Of following that crowned Star, whose unstained 
flame 
Those heights empyrean sought from whence it 
came. 
And as a babe, its lips with milk yet wet, 
Towards its mother holds its arms, to bless 
Its source of joy with one more fond caress, 
So with its summit flaming as a jet, 
Did each effulgence sway t’wards Mary, whence 
I learned for her their fondness felt intense. 


And then remained. they full within my view, 127 
In tones “ Regina Cceli” singing, ne’er 
From my delighted memory forth to fare. 
O what abundant heavenly harvests knew 
Those reapers glorious, and those following them 
Will know, enriched for wheat with gem on gem! 
For so converted they the treasure find 
Which sown in tears was under Babylon’s walls 
Whereof their gold made glare the lordly halls. 


And, ’neath God’s sway, and Mary’s auspices 
kind, 136 
And frondage, Old and New, the fruit, the bloom, 
There he his mighty triumph holds to whom 
The keys of such a glory were assigned. 


NOTES TO THE TWENTY-THIRD CANTO. 


29. “A Sun that oer them all.’ Dante adopts the Ptole- 
maic idea that all the stars of heaven derive their light from 
our sun. 


394 ‘ Paradiso. 





Notes. 





34. “O... dear.” The ejaculation of a person smitten 
with sudden blindness, to his guide. 

46. “ Thine eyes now open.” Beatrice speaks. 

56. “ Polyhymnia.” The Muse of Harmony. 

70. “ Why on my face.” Beatrice speaks again. 

73, 88, 92. “ The Rose... that fair Flower .. . that high 
Star.” The Blessed Virgin. 

74. “ The lilies.’ The apostles who showed the way to 
heaven by the perfume of their holy lives. 

78. “ To bear the battle of the feeble brows.” 


** Alla battaglia dei debili cigli.” 


The struggle of his feeble eyesight against the brilliant light. 

94, 96, 1o1. “A torchlet...crown ... lyre.” The Angel 
Gabriel. Observe, in the description of the Angel, the three- 
fold simile: a trinity of similes. 

tol. “Sapphire.” The lapidaries attributed to the sap- 
phire many mystic virtues. It is the color in which the old 
painters always arrayed the Madonna. Longfellow quotes 
a writer who says “it is the exact shade of the air or atmos- 
phere in the climate of Rome.” 

105. “Our Desire.” “The desire of all nations shall 
come.” Haggai ii. 7. 

112, 113. “ Zhe robe... fervid.” ‘The sphere of Primal 
Motion, which, being next to the Empyrean, is moved by 
vehement desire into motion more rapid than that of the 
other Heavens, and which enfolds the inferior Heavens as a 
robe enfolds the human form. 

117. “ Had not... my vision met.” The Blessed Virgin 
Mary had ascended beyond the sphere of Primal Motion, the 
Primum Mobile, into the immediate presence of God—too 
far, Dante says, to make it possible for him to follow her 
ascension. 

128. “‘ Regina Celi’” It is related that, in the year 590, 
during the prevalence of a pestilence at Rome, Pope Gregory 
the Great, while leading a penitential procession to Saint 
Peter’s Church, saw, as he approached the Mausoleum of 


Canto XXII, . 305 





Notes, 


/ 








Hadrian, on its summit an Angel sheathing a bloody sword, 
, and heard from heaven celestial voices chanting the words : 
* Regina Ceeli, letare! Alleluia. 


Quia quem meruisti portare, Alleluia, 
Resurrexit, sicut dixit, Alleluia.”’ 


And that to these words the pope responded : 
** Ora pro nobis Deum! Alleluia.” 


The words of the heavenly choristers and of the responding 
saint have become gems of the ritual ; and the image of the 
Angel in the act of sheathing the sword occupies the summit 
of this most ambitious of the structures of ancient Rome, first 
a tomb, then a fortification, then the witness of a celestial 
event, and, to this day, perpetuating the memory of effectual 
prayer. The historian Gibbon, unusually flippant in this 
connection, attempts to throw discredit on the narration by 
the saint of this supernatural happening, and attributes it to 
the writer’s “ credulity or prudence.” The author of the 
Decline and Fail is so unhappy, in this passage, that he, with- 
out necessity, but through a blunder, denies therein a fact of 
history among the most salient, namely, that Saint Gregory 
the Great was not the last pontiff to whom were conceded 
the honors of canonization. 

131. “ Those reapers.” Saint Peter, and the other holy 
men of the Old and New Testament. 

138. “ There he.’ Saint Peter. The closing lines of 
Wright’s translation of this Canto seem to me to possess 
unusual merit: 

** Here they rejoice, and taste the wealth of old 
Acquired with many a tear in Babylon, 
During their exile, where they spurned the gold: 
Here shares the honor of the victory 
Gained by the aid of God, and Mary’s Son, 


Among the old and recent Patriarchs, he > 
Who holds the keys, and this high glory won.” 


CANTO TWENTY-FOURTH. 


ARGUMENT: 


At Beatrice’s suggestion, Saint Peter examines Dante on 
Faith, and commends the Poet for his answers. 
Still the Heaven of the Fixed Stars. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Saint Peter. Dante. Beatrice. 


PERSONS APPEARING: Rays descending from Christ. The 
Cherubim. The triumphal hosts. The Apostles. The 
spirits of the Metaphysicians. 


““O ve, elect the supper great to share 
The blessed Lamb sets forth, whereon who feeds 
Hath fulness to the utmost of his needs, 

If should God’s grace so much this man prepare, 

- Or ever death shall on him make his call, 
Through taste of what may from your table fall, 

Regard with favor this his great desire ; 
He seeks your dew; yours is fore’er the fount 
Whereto his fondest aspirations mount!” 








Canto XXTV. 397 


Saint Peter. 








Thus Beatrice ; and now those souls of fire 10 
Revolved as spheres on firm-set poles, the guise 
Of comets having whence keen radiance flies. 

And as in clockwork, wheel on wheel ’s advanced, 
So that the first hath motion none, but swift 
The last one doth in ready leverage lift, 

So, on those carolling bands of melody danced 
In different measure, and each affluence so 
Its gauge me gave by motion fast or slow. 


From that sphere which to me did most abound 19 
In beauty came a flame whereof the fire 
Left none there that in splendor mounted higher ; 
And Beatrice now three several times around 
It rapidly moved with so divine a song 
That vainly it to keep my soul doth long, 
And fails the pen and laboring fancy weak ; 
No tones imagination hath nor speech 
The rhapsody high of that fair song can reach. 


“O holy sister mine, who us dost seek 28 
With such devotion, from this dance divine 
Thou dost unbind me by this love of thine!” 

So to my Lady did that blest flame turn 
Its sacred breathing, when, its motion stayed, 

It unto her its kind attention paid. 

“O thou, of that great man the light eterne, 

To whom,” she said, “‘Our Lord the keys gave, 
brought : | 
By him to earth, of this joy miracle-fraught ! 


398 Paradiso. 





What is Faith? 





“This one examine thou, on points, or light 37 
Or grave, as thee may please, of Faith, which thee 
Made walk erect upon the billowing sea. 

If that his Love, and Hope, and Faith be right, 
To thee it manifest is, for thou canst scan 
That Mind which mirrors all the thoughts of man. 

But since true Faith this realm hath peopled fair, 
*T is meet that to exalt its glory, word 
Such as he hath thereon should here be heard.” 


As the collegian arms his mind with care, 46 
And waits for what his master’s lips may frame, 
Discussion, not decision, being his aim, 

So I, while she was speaking, sought 
For every weapon caution might suggest, 

When such the questioner was and such his 
quest. 

“ Speak, thou good Christian, as a Christian ought, 
Say what is Faith?” Whereat my brow I raised 
To face that radiant light which there so blazed, 


Then unto Beatrice turned, and her consent 55 
Saw in her looks that from mine inmost fount 
Might to my lips the unlocked waters mount. 

“May that same grace that liberty me hath lent 
To make confession to the Church’s head, 

Be cause in me of utterance apt,” I said; 

Then added: “ Father, as the unerring pen 
Of thy dear brother wrote it, who, with thee, 
Made Rome before her the true path to see, 





q 
: 
P 


Canto XXIV. 399 





Substance and Evidence. 





“ The substance Faith is of the things that men 64 
Hope for, and th’ evidence true of things not seen; 
Its quiddity thus I from such sources glean.” 


- Then heard I: “Very rightly hast thou deemed, 


If well thou understandest why is placed 

The substance first, to be then evidence-graced.” 
And thereon I: “The things profound which seemed 

Always to my mind manifest, are from eyes 

Concealed of all below not heavenly-wise, 


“ And so exist there only in Belief, 73 
Whereon high Hope its sure foundation makes, 
Whence Faith the nature of a substance takes. 

And of our reasoning this is duly chief 
Where opportunity none is given of sight, 

And hence of evidence it attains the height.” 

Then heard I: “If whatever men acquire 
By doctrine were thus clearly understood, 

No sophist’s subtlety more would pass as good.” 


Thus breathed that saintly brilliance of Love's 
fire ; 82 
Then added: “Thou dost very truly state 
What’s of this coin the true alloy and weight ; 
But tell me, canst thou in thy purse it show?” 
I answered : “ Yes, so glittering and so round 
That of its stamp no room for doubt is found.” 
And then there issued from the deep strong glow 
That there resplendent was: “This jewel of 
grace, 
Whereon hath every virtue its firm base, 


400 Paradiso, 





Works. 





“Whence hadst thou it?” And I: “ Have moved 9: 
Outpoured upon the ancient scrolls and new 
The Holy Spirit’s bounties rich and true, 

An argument forming, which unto me proved 
This truth so sharply that appears obtuse 
All demonstration else and vainly loose.” 

“The elder proposition and the new,” 

I heard, “ that have thy mind such impress given, 
Why dost thou take them as the voice of Heaven?” 


And I: “The proofs which show these things are 
eae 100 
Are the works following, for which Nature heat 
To iron ne’er gave as yet, nor anvil beat.” 
’T was answered me: “Say, that those works e’er 
were, 
Who makes thee sure? The thing which proof 
requires 
The witness is, warped by its own desires.” 
“That, through a world converted, forth should fare,” 
I said, “ Christ’s doctrine without miracles, one 
This were that would a hundred shamed outrun. 


“ F’en thou didst, poor and fasting, seek the field 109 
Wherein by thee the goodly plant was sown, 
Which was a vine, and is a bramble grown.” 

And then throughout that lofty court there pealed 
Great cheer of voices from those lustrous spheres : 
“One God we praise !” in tones heaven often hears. 

And then that lord, who thus the outmost sprays 
Reached of that lofty tree, our mighty theme, 
Thus of its summit made the foliage gleam: 





Canto XXIV. 401 


Creed. 








“The Grace that with thine intellect dallying 
plays 118 
Thy mouth hath opened, answers ushering forth, 
Up to this point, which show thy Christian worth, 
And mine approval draw on them and thee; 
But now express thou what thou dost believe, 
And wherefrom thy Belief thou didst receive.” 
“O spirit, holy father, who dost see 
What thou believedst, so that thou more fleet 
To reach the sepulchre wert than younger feet,” 


I said, “Thou dost here wish that I unroll 127 
The form of this my ready Faith, combined 
With cause thereof which fixed my steadfast mind. 

In one God I believe, eternal, sole, 

He who, himself unmoved, the Heavens moves all, 
Desire and Love them bending to his call; 

And of such Faith, plain as mine upraised palms, 
Proofs physical and metaphysical rain 
In plenty down, and truth from this high plane 


“Through Moses, through the Prophets and the 


Psalms 136 
And Gospel, sent, and through yourself, when 
nursed 


Your writing mood the Holy Spirit first. 
Holds Three Eterne my Faith’s firm ark, 

Of essence one, but threefold even as one, 

So that nor ‘are’ nor ‘is’ will their noun shun. 
With this profound condition, which I mark 

As all divine, my mind doth oft impress 

The Evangel’s doctrines with emphatic stress. 





402 Paradiso. 





The Benediction. 





“ This the beginning is, the kindling spark, __145 
Which afterwards broadens into flame, a star, 
Like one in heaven, whose lustre shines afar.” 

.Even as a master who in kind embrace 
His servant holds through joy for tidings good, 
Soon as, speech ended, he hath silent stood, 

So benediction giving me, when space 
Had followed silence mine, me circled round 
Three times that apostolic light, who found 


In answers mine to him a pleasing grace. 154 


NOTES TO THE TWENTY-FOURTH CANTO. 


1. “ The supper great.” “ And he saith unto me, Write, 
Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper 
of the Lamb.” evelation xix. 9. 

11. “As spheres.” “Spere.” Having a horizontal motion, 
the same as suggested by the simile, heretofore employed, of 
the millstone. 

20. “A flame.” Saint Peter. 

64, 65. “Substance .. . evidence.” ‘ Now faith is the sub- 
stance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” 
Flebrews xi. 1. 

66. “ Quiddity.” The whatness of a thing, the essence of a 
thing, the answer to the question, “ Quid est?” What is it? 

81. “ Would pass as good.” 


“* Non gli avria luogo ingegno di sofista.” 


The translator thus anticipates the metaphor which Dante 
will introduce in the next tercet. 

101. “ The works following.” Miracles. 
' 125. “ Thou more fleet.” Says Dante, in the Third Book 
of his De Monarchia, Peter entered in suddenly, “ sudito,” 
finding John delaying at the entrance. This account Dante 
had from John himself, xx. 4. 








Canto XXIV. 403 


Notes. 








137- “ Yourself.” Note the courteous, perhaps the official, 
plural, “ voi.” 

We may note here that to the awe which the character 
and example of Saint Peter have inspired is ascribed by 
Earle, in his Manual of the Lives of the Popes, the historical 
fact that none of Saint Peter’s successors in the papacy have 
been willing to retain or assume that august name. There 
is no second Peter, and no Peter the Second. 

137. “ Almi.” A beautifully affectionate and loyal word. 


‘* Poiché |’ ardente spirto vi fece almi.” 
141. “ Wor ‘are’ nor ‘is.’” 
** Che soffera congiunto sumt et este.” 
Metri gratia for est. Many manuscripts say somo et este. 
149. “ His servant.” Pope Saint Gregory the Great gave 
himself the humble title of “servus servorum,” servant of 
servants, a title adopted by all his successors. 


150. “ Benediction.” Dante will immediately again refer 
to this benediction in the beginning of the next Canto. 


CANTO TWENTY-FIFTH. 


ARGUMENT: 


Dante begins this Canto, devoted to Hope, with the expres- 
sion of his hope that the Commedia may bring about his 
return to Florence, and his coronation with the laurel 
crown, in the Duomo. 

Guided by Beatrice, Dante enters into a conversation with 
Saint James on Hope. Beatrice and Saint John are de- 
lighted listeners. The effulgence of Saint John strikes 
Dante with blindness. 

Still the Heaven of the Fixed Stars. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Saint James. Beatrice. Voices in 
song. Dante. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Cherubim. The triumphal hosts. 
Saint Peter, Saint John, and other Apostles. The spirits 
of the Metaphysicians. 


Ir e’er the Sacred Poem, whereto heaven 
And earth have set their hand, so that as seen 
The years are to pass on, it makes me lean, 
O’ercome the cruelty harsh that hath me driven 
From the fair sheepfold where a lamb I slept 
Hateful to wolves that round it grimly crept, 
With other voice, and shining fleecy rolls, 
Poet will I return, and laurell’d be 
At that blest font where baptism came to me, 


Canto XXV. 405 





Saint James. 





Because into the Faith which trains all souls 10 
To God there entered I, and for her sake, 
Did Peter thus blest circles round me make. 
Now from the company whence the first fruits came 
Of vicars Christ behind him left, a light 
Towards us moved, leaving those lustres bright. 
And then my Lady, touched with ecstasy’s flame, 
** Look, look,” to me said, “ there that great one 
see 
For whom crowds throng Galicia, shore and lea.” 





As when alights a ring-dove by his mate, 19 
And, while each, circling round the other, wheels, 
He, murmuring, cooes the fondness which he 

feels, 

So saw I each of those lights high and great 
The other glorify, and, welcoming, praise 
The food that gives, above, unending days, 

But when their happy greetings glad had ceased, 
In silence each before me stood in flame 
So densely bright my sight it overcame. 


; 
5 
:. 
3 
‘ 
: 
3 
' 
i 
j 
: 
; 
. 


_—— 


And, smiling, Beatrice thus renewed the feast: 28 
: “ Tllustrious soul, who hast the bounties great 
; Of this our Heaven described in tones elate, 
_ Make Hope within this altitude’s sphere resound ; 
: Thou canst it figure in bright traits, as clear 
As when did Jesus to the three appear.” 
“Lift up thine head; in trust do thou abound ; 
For that which, mortal, seeks our heavenly ways 
We needs must ripen in these gladdening rays.” 





406 Paradiso. 





What is Hope? 





This comfort from the second fire me sought, 37 
Whence to the hills mine eyes I lifted, late 
Borne down and trembling with the too-great 

weight. 

“Since ’t is our Emperor’s will that thou be brought 
Through grace of his, ere meets thee death, 

before 
The noblest counsellors welcomed to his door, 

So that, the truth of this Court having viewed, 
Thou may’st of Hope, which love all souls below, 
Aid, in thyself and others, too, the glow, 


“Say what it is, and how far is imbued eee 
Thy mind therewith, and whence to thee it 
came?” 


Thus did again discourse the second flame. 

And she, whose pitying love, in such high flight, 
Was pilot to my plumage, made reply 
Enabling me to pass one query by: 

“Than him, among her sons, of Hope more bright 
Hath the Church Militant none, as in that Sun 
Is written plain, whose rays through Paradise run; 


“Therefore, into Jerusalem to see, 55 
It is permitted he from Egypt fare, 
Ere yet is closed his term of service there. 

The two remaining points, not that to thee 
He knowledge may add on, are asked, but rise 
From estimation Hope hath in your eyes ; 

These leave I him; not hard he will them find, 
Not calling for self-praise ; and may him aid 
The helping grace of God upon him rayed!” 





Canto XX V. 407 


The Theody high. 








As when a sedulous scholar well-inclined 64 
Occasion fair of answering only asks 
That he may show proficiency in his tasks, 
“ Hope,” thus I said, “is expectation sure 
Of future glory, the effect which grace 
And merit preceding show in this high place. 
Send many stars to me this radiance pure, 
But he first made it in my nature strong 
Who to our Leader, leader was in song. 


“*Let them in Thee have Hope, Thy name who 
know,’ 73 
So sings he in his Theody high ; and who 
Doth not it know who Faith like mine hath true? 
Then, thou didst in me heighten the sweet flow 
That came from him, in thine Epistle ; rain 
This said — others through me, ‘Drought of . 
gain.” 
And, as I spoke, of that keen flame the breast 
Showed, quivering, an effulgence rare of heaven, 
Sudden and frequent, as doth flash the levin ; 


Then breathed : “Love for the virtue which me 
blest, 82 

Before the palm kind heaven to me did yield, 
Before I left my blood upon the field, 

Prompts me to urge that thou in Hope have joy; 
And grateful will it be to me to hear 
Thy hold on Hope, that foe that exiles fear.” 

And I: “ The Scriptures, old and new, employ 
Apt words the mark to show of that fair aim 
You and all friends of God may safely claim. 


408 Paradiso. 





The Scriptures Old and New. 





“Isaiah saith that each one clothed shall be, or 
In his own land, with twofold garments, and 
That this delightful life is his own land, 

Thy brother, too, and far more clearly he, 

This revelation brings before our sight, 
There where his speech is of the robes of white.” 

And just before mine answer thus was done, 

“Let them in Thee have Hope,” above was heard, 
While carrollings answered, all with rapture 
stirred. 


And brilliant, then, a crystal ’mongst them shone, 100 
So that, if one such gemmed the Cancer’s sign, 
Throughout a winter’s month would daylight 

shine. 

And, as her seat leaves, tripping to the dance, 

A winsome maiden, favoring thus the bride, 
And innocent as gay, and free from pride, 

Even thus that brilliant gem I saw advance 
To meet the other two, whose glowing wheels 
Revolving showed the ardor love reveals. 


Came it where song and music held their sway 109 
And fixedly my Lady fair them eyed, 
Silent and motionless eyed, as might a bride. 
“This he is who, upon the bosom lay 
Of our own Pelican, blest; this he, the voice 
Sent from the cross declared Christ’s friend of 
choice.” | 
My Lady thus; but therefore never free 
A moment was her gaze from that bright throng, 
A gaze that grew as grew the dance and song. 





OS SS 


Canto XXV. 409 


Saint John. 








Even as a man who gazes, and to see 118 
The eclipsing of the sun a little tries, 
Whence vision leaves his overmastered eyes, 
So I became before that lustre last, 
The while it said: ‘Why dost thou, dazed, 
persist 
To see a thing which doth not here exist? 
Earth in the earth my body is; as fast 
Our number shall increase as God decrees, 
And destiny wide with His high will agrees. 


* Sole with the garments two our cloister here 127 
Claims those, the two ascended from the earth: 
Report thou this, as due their glorious worth.” 

This utterance given, words from the flaming sphere 
No more were heard; no more the melody came 
That gave forth that sweet trinity’s burst of 

flame. 

Times come when tars, while threatening perils hiss, 
Drop in the mighty flood the laboring oars, 
While pipes the whistle, and wide ocean roars : 


Ah, how much my anxiety seemed like this, 136 
When, turning round to Beatrice for joy’s food, 
I could not see her, although close I stood 

By her dear side, and in the World of Bliss ! 


NOTES TO THE TWENTY-FIFTH CANTO. 


5, 8. “* The fair sheepfold ... laurell’d.’ Here is evidence 
of Dante’s political, personal, purpose in writing the Com- 
media. The pastoral he addressed in Ravenna to Giovanni 


410 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





del Virgilio is to the same effect. This pastoral was written 
after the Inferno was complete, but before the other divisions 
of the Commedia were written. Virgilio had desired him 
to come to Bologna, that in Bologna he might receive the 
laurelled wreath. “No,” is, in substance the answer of 
Dante, “I prefer to wait, that, on the completion of my 
Poem, I may receive the coveted crown on the banks of my 
native Arno.” ‘ 

g. “ At that blest fount.” The mention of the Church of 
Saint John, in the opening lines of a Canto wherein Saint 
John is to be introduced, has a peculiar fitness. 

11.“ For her sake.” For the sake of the Faith, ee Church. 

14. “ First Sruits. ” James i. 18. 

17, 18. “ That great one ... Galicia.” Saint Jaioea, 
brother of Saint John. They received, for their zeal and 
courage, the title of Boanerges, or Sons of Thunder. Christ 
himself gave them this title at the time of their ordination 
by him as apostles. Mark iii. 17. Saint James suffered 
martyrdom under Herod Agrippa. His heroic end converted 
his executioner, who was immediately also beheaded. An 
Angel protected and preserved his remains, and after the 
identity of their resting-place, in Galicia, had been forgotten, 
a supernatural message revealed it. He became the patron 
saint of Spain, and the historians of that country describe 
thirty-eight manifest apparitions of the saint descended from 
heaven to lead the Christian armies against the Moors. His 
tomb at Compostella became a resort for pilgrims from all 
Europe, their number, in a single year, sometimes amounting 
to a hundred thousand. 

28. “ The feast.’ The metaphor of the preceding Canto 
is thus renewed. 

33. “ Zo thee three.’ To Saint Peter, Saint James, and 
Saint John, in the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor. 

37. “Second fire.” Saint James. 

38. “ Hills.” “TI will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from 
whence cometh my help.” Psalm cxxi. 1. 

40, 42, 43. “ Emperor ... counsellors ... court.” Dante 
would intimate, even here, his imperialistic leanings. 





Canto XXV. 4II 


Notes. 








55, 50. “Into Ferusalem ... from Egypt.” From the 
Egyptian darkness and slavery of this world into the bril- 
liancy and freedom of the heavenly Jerusalem ; as Dante is 
supposed to have said, in his letter to Can Grande, “from the 
bondage of this corruption into the freedom of eternal glory.” 
Dante herein has allusion to the initial verses of the one 


hundred and fourteenth Psalm. 


57. “ Term of service.” Service in the Church Militant. 

58. “ Zhe two remaining points.’ “Say what it is” and 
“ Whence to thee it came.” 

67. “ Hope.” A quotation from Peter Lombard, who, as 
we have seen, was one of the theologians accompanying 
Saint Thomas of Aquin in the Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth, 
Thirteenth, and Fourteenth Cantos: “Est spes certa ex- 
pectatio future beatitudinis, veniens ex Dei gratia, et meritis 
preecedentibus.” 

73. “ Hope in thee.” Psalm ix. 10. 

go. “ Goa’s friends.” “ Abraham believed God . . . and was 
called the Friend of God.” ames ii. 23. 

oI, 92. “ln his own land... with twofold garments.” 
The return of the soul to the heavens, its place of origin, is a 
doctrine at least as old as Plato. See, as to this, the notes 
to the Fourth Canto. 

That the soul shall be united with the body in the resur- 
rection is the doctrine of Christianity, a realization predicted 
by Isaiah: “Therefore in their land they shall possess 
the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.” Jsazah 
ini. 7. 

The glorified earthly body of the resurrection is the sub- 
ject of Dante’s allusions in the Sixth and Tenth Infernos and 
Fourteenth and Thirtieth Paradisos. 

94, 95. “ Zhy brother ... robes of white.” Saint John, 
in Nevelation vii.g: “ After this I beheld, and lo, a great 
multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and 
kindreds, and peoples, and tongues, stood before the throne, 
and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in 
their hands.” 


412 Paradiso. : 





Notes. 





100. “A crystal.” Saint John. 
tor. “Cancer.” In the time of Dante, the constellation 
of Cancer occupied the sign of this name in the zodiac. 
Being opposite to the sign of Capricorn, the constellation 
was visible, in northern latitudes, during the nights of the 
entire month of February. The meaning of Dante is, that 
the spirit of Saint John shone with an effulgence equal to 
that of the sun, and prepares us for Dante’s statement that 
by the intensity of this effulgence he lost his power of sight. 
102. “ Throughout... daylight.” 
** Elect of heaven, its wisdom still denied thee. 
The path thy brothers trod — 
That path, made holy by the master’s footsteps, 


Through martyrdom, to God.” 
Frances A. SHAw. 


107. “ The other two whose glowing wheels.” ‘The millstone 
and the sphere are now spoken of as wheels: “rota.” These 
two are Saint Peter and Saint John. 

113. “Pelican.” Art and piety in the Middle Ages de- 
lighted to apply to the care of Christ for his flock the symbol 
or allegory of the Pelican. 

Thibault the crusader, king and poet of Navarre, and 
whom Dante adored, is said by Longfellow to have written a 
chanson of unusual beauty on the subject of Christ as the 
Pelican. 

114. “ Christ’s friend of choice.” “Then saith He to the 
disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disci- 
ple took her unto his own home.” 

120, 138. “‘ Overmastered eyes... 1 could not see her.” 
Dante was blinded by the dazzling effulgence of the spirit of 
Saint John. 

124. “ Earth in the earth my body is.” Saint John read the 
thoughts of Dante, who wondered if he indeed saw before 
him the earthly body of the Saint. Christ had said (Yohn 
xxi. 22): “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that 
to thee? . . . Then went this saying abroad among the 
brethren that this disciple should not die.” And, according 





Canto XXV. 413 


Notes. 








to a legend of the Greek church, Saint John died, but imme- 
diately rose again in bodily form, and ascended into heaven. 

126. “ His high will.” “And it was said unto them that 
they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow- 
servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they 
were, should be fulfilled.” Revelation vi. 11. 

127, 128. “Sole with the garments two... the two 
ascended.” Christ and the Blessed Virgin alone ascended, 
bearing with them their spiritual bodies and also their 
glorified earthly bodies. 

132. “ That sweet trinity.’ Saint Peter, Saint James, and 
Saint John. 


rae 


CANTO TWENTY-SIXTH. 
ARGUMENT: 


Saint John engages Dante in a conversation on Charity, in 
the sense of love. Dante now learns from Beatrice that 
they are in the presence of Adam. Adam and Dante con- 
duct a conversation. 

Still the Heaven of the Fixed Stars. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Saint John. Dante. Beatrice. Adam. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Cherubim. The triumphal hosts. 
Saint Peter, Saint James, and other Apostles. Spirits of 
the metaphysicians. 


WHILE doubted I as to mine eyesight lost, 

Out of those blinding rays a breath I heard, 
Which further now my deep attention stirred. 

“ Whilst thou regainest,” thus did it me accost, 
“The sense of sight on me consumed, let speech 
Exchanged across space intervening reach, 

Begin, then, say whereto thy soul doth steer, 

And be assured, thy dazed sight is not dead, 
It is o’ercome, and for the moment fled ; 





Canto XX VI. 415 





Beatrice. . Healing in her Smile. 





** Because the Lady that doth guide thee here 0 
Doth in her look the power divine enfold 
Which in his hand did Ananias hold.” 

I said: “ Or soon or late may aid be brought, 

As deems she fittest, unto gates of sight, 

Where entering she her deathless fire did light. 
The Good that doth illuminate all this Court, 

The Alpha and Omega is of all 

The varying thoughts whereto Love doth me call.” 


And, yet again, the voice that did me give 19 

Assurance in the terror blindness brought, 

That it might aid still further give my thought, 
Thus spoke: “In truth, with yet a finer sieve 

’T is meet that thou shouldst sift; thou shouldst 

me tell 

Who, at such targe, thine arrow aimed so well.” 
And I: “ By philosophic arguments sound, 

And by authority high this place doth wield, 

Such love must on my soul be deeply sealed ; 


“ For Good, unto the extent it doth abound, — 2 
Love kindles, raising higher its kindled height 
The longer shines therein Love’s radiant might. 

That Essence, then, which such advantage hath 
That, if elsewhither aught good finds its way, 

It is but of its lustrous light a ray, 

Must in its mood most joyous find its path 
In minds which, loving, are intent to trace 
The truth wherein Love’s evidence hath its base. 


416 Paradiso. 





The loftiest Mystery of the Skies. 





** Such truth he to my intellect doth make clear 37 
Who unto me the Primal Love explains 
Which to itself all things immortal gains. 
Says it the truthful Author we revere 
In speaking of Himself to Moses: ‘See’ 
He said, ‘shalt thou all Goodness pass ’fore 
thee.’ 7 
And, lastly, thou dost learn it me, as loud 
Thy heraldry, at its outset, doth arise, 
Voicing the loftiest mystery of the skies.” 


And heard I say: “By man’s mind ’t is avowed 46 
And thereto do authority’s mandates serve, 
Thou shouldst thy highest love to God reserve. 

But say thou, now, if do not cords yet more 
Thee draw t’wards Him; what teeth, say, do 

thee bite, 
Wherewith this Love doth show thee its fond 
might.” 

Christ’s Eagle’s purpose lay before the door, 

Not veiled, and thence I readily took good heed 
_ Whereto his quest would mine avowal lead. 


And I resumed: “ Those loving teeth which turn s5 
With power resistless all man’s heart to God 
Have met me in all paths where I have trod. 

For Him all nature, mine own being, yearn, 

Me draws that death He died that I may live, 
And all that Hope doth to the faithful give, 

All these, with others that I have confessed, 

All, from the sea of Love perverse, have brought 
Me to that shore of holy Love I sought. 








af Canto XX VI. Ay 





The Effulgence of Beatrice. 





“So much, the leaves that in the garden blest 64 

Gleam ’neath the Eternal Gardener’s care, of 
Good 
As he gives them, so much of Love I would.” 

I ceased, and now I through the skies heard sweep 
Words: “ Holy, Holy, Holy ;” and the voice 
Of her my Lady joined the melody choice. 

And as, on sudden light, one starts from sleep, 

By reason of the visual ray that seeks 
The splendor that through each tired membrane 
leaks, 


And he who wakes in horror is and fright, 73 
So all unconscious is he brought awake, 
Until his judgment doth him rational make, 
So from mine eyes did chase the radiant light 
That Beatrice shed through thousand miles and 
more 
The clouds that their clear vision overbore ; 
Whence saw I better than I had before, 
And ina sort of wonder sought to know 
About a fourth light’s incandescent glow. 


And said she now: “ Within that lustre’s core 
Doth on its Maker gaze the first soul given 
To live by virtue of the Will of Heaven.” 
Even as the bough that, when the blast ’s abroad, 
Bows its lithe top, but when the tempest’s passed, 
Lifts by its innate strength its sprays at last, 
Did I when then she spoke become so awed ; 
But then my curiosity made me strong, 
And for discourse with eagerness great to long ; 


418 | Paradiso. 





Ray on Ray. 





And thus I said: “O apple, that alone or 
Wast ripe when born, O lord of ancient life, 
To whom is daughter and daughter-in-law each 
wife, 
With all devotion I thy presence own, 
And lofty converse seek ; thou hast my prayer, 
And I, to hear thy words, from speech forbear.” 
At times the covering which an animal wraps 
Shows the interior impulse in its shape, 
And thus its unvoiced meaning hath escape ; 


And, in like manner, throughout lapse on lapse 100 
Of ray on ray round this primeval soul, 
Delight I saw with pleasure’s mood control. 
Then breathed: “ Without thine uttering it. to me, 
I better see whereto thy mind ’s inclined 
Than thou what thou most sure and fixed doth 
find ; 
For in Him, truth’s own mirror, I it see, 
Who all-things of Himself a pattern makes 
And to whom nought itself a pattern takes. 


“This wouldst thou hear: how long ago God 
placed 109 
Me in that garden high wherefrom to ascend 
This Lady thee her gracious aid did lend ; 

And how long I was with its pleasures graced ; 
And why, with such disdain, God me so blamed ; 
And language what I used and therein framed. 

Now, son of man, the tasting of the tree 
Not in itself of banishment thence was cause ; 
Brought this mine overstepping of God’s laws. 


5 


a a Se eee 


Canto XX VI. 419 


The Good Supreme. 











“There, whence thy Lady Virgil brought to thee, 1s 
Desired I bliss while ran the sun’s course through 
Four thousand and three hundred rounds and 

two ; 

And him I saw return through every light 
He claims, nine hundred, full, and thirty, rounds 
While I my life prolonged in earthly bounds. 

The language that I spoke was obsolete quite 
Before the work interminable began 
Wherein the people followed Nimrod’s plan ; 


“A plan which shows how vainly mankind seeks 127 
For permanent forms, because man’s will doth 
change 
As it control the stars that o’er him range. 
*T is nature’s prompting whence each mortal 
speaks ; 
But whether thus or thus, doth nature leave 
From your own mood its fashion to receive. 
Ere I to Hell’s abyss descended, greet 
Did men on earth the Good Supreme as E1, 
From whom comes all this joy wherein I dwell ; 


* Eli he then was called, and that is meet, 136 

Because is usage a deciduous leaf, 

And words their harvests bring of sheaf on sheaf. 
Upon the loftiest Mount my life had run 

Or pure or sinful, there above the sea, 

From the first hour that held its terraces me, 
Till, changing quadrant, passed the sixth the sun.” 


420 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





NOTES TO THE TWENTY-SIXTH CANTO. 


12. “ Ananias.” The disciple, at Damascus, whose touch 
restored the sight of Saul. Ac#s ix. 17. 

17. “ The Alpha and Omega.” ‘This seems to be designed 
as an answer to Saint John’s question: “Say whereto thy 
soul doth steer.” 

37. “Such truth he... doth make clear.” What author 
Dante alludes to, in this instance, is not certain. The com- 
mentators are divided between Aristotle, Plato, and Pythag- 
oras. 

42. “ All Goodness.” Exodus xxiii. 14. 

44. “ Thou dost learn it me.” The mystery of divine things 
is especially learned from Saint John himself in the sublime 
exordium of his gospel. 

52. “ Zagle.” The eagle is the symbol of Saint John. — 

64. “ The leaves.” Mankind, the creatures of God, 

69. “Holy! Holy! Holy!” Isaiah vi. 3. 

92. “ Ripe when born.” “Some divines count Adam thirty 
years old at his creation, because they suppose him created 
in the perfect age and stature of man.” Sir Thomas Browne, 
Religio Medici, sec. 39. 

110. “ That garden high.’ The garden of Eden, the ter- 
restrial Paradise at the summit of the Purgatorial Mountain. 

112. “ This lady.” Beatrice, it will be remembered, accom- 
panied Dante from the terrestrial Paradise; Virgil accom- 
panied him from Limbo; but Beatrice went to Limbo to find 
Virgil. 

137. “ Usage.” 

** Ut sylvz, foliis pronos mutantis in annos, 


Prima cadunt: ita verborum vetus interit ztas, 
Et juvenum ritu florent modo nata vigentque. 


Multa renascentur quz jam cecidere, cadentque 

Quz nunc sunt in honore vocabula, si volet usus, 

Quem penes arbitrium est et jus et norma loquendi.” 
Horace, Ars Poetica, 60. 


a Canto XXVI. 421 


Notes. 











th hour of the day answers to our noon, and Adam was, 
therefore, in the Garden of Eden only seven hours. In this 
4 a ate Dante follows Peter Comestor, one of the theolo-. 


og ee be remembered that Dante’s plan of the universe 
places the Garden of Eden, the Terrestrial Paradise, upon 





CANTO TWENTY-SEVENTH. 


ARGUMENT: 


At the close of Adam’s discourse, voices sing the Glory be 
to the Father; and then silence ensued, wherein Saint 
Peter discoursed to Dante on the corruptions of the see of 
Rome, and enjoined upon Dante the duty of opening his 
lips on his return to this globe. 

Beatrice now directs him to look back over the space trav- . 
ersed; and, looking back, he is wafted onward with in-, 
credible swiftness to the ninth Heaven, called the Heaven 
of primal motion, or the Crystalline Heaven, the abode of 
the spirits of the moral philosophers, and placed under the 
control of the Seraphim. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Saint Peter. Voices in song. Beatrice. 
Dante. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Cherubim. Saint James, Saint 
John, ‘and other Apostles. Adam. The spirits of the 
metaphysicians. The Seraphim. The spirits of the moral 
philosophers. 


THEN “Glory to the Father, to the Son, 

And to the Holy Ghost!” all Paradise sung; 

And me inebriate made those harps so strung. 
And as I gazed, it seemed to me had won 

The universe pleased a smile ; inebriation sight 

And hearing both had brought with such delight. 
O joy! O gladness in unmeasured store! 

O perfect life of love and high content! 

O wealth secure whereon no care is bent ! 


Canto XX VIT. 423 





Vehemence of Saint Peter. 









Before mine eyes yet stood the torches four, 10 
High-kindled, and the one that earliest came 
Began with ruddier radiance now to flame. 

And even in semblance such its lustre grew 
As Jupiter would become, were birds both he 

And Mars, and they on change of plumage should 

’ agree. 

That Providence wise, which here man’s duties 

through 

Season and service blendeth, in that throng | 

Divine had silence given to speech and song, 


When heard I say: “ Of wonder show no trace 19 
If change I color, for while I shall speak 
Shall all of these a change of color seek. 

He who usurps upon the earth my place, 
My place, my place, which in the presence pure 
Of God’s own Son is vacant, hath a sewer 

Of blood and stench made of my cemetery, one 
Perverse appeasing whose compelled flight hence 
Made him ’gainst God’s might harbor all offence!” 


. With the same color which the morning sun, 28 
Or evening, paints upon the clouded skies, 
Beheld I, mantling heaven, a redness rise ; 

And, as a blameless lady, who hath none 
Of faults herself, yet when one faulty ’s named 
Within her hearing, timorous is and shamed, 
E’en thus did Beatrice countenance change; and 
such 
Eclipse I deem was seen in heaven when Power 
Omnipotent suffered in that supreme hour. 


"op ae Nagin 
~ ‘ ih 
an ’ 


424 Paradiso. 





War on the Baptized. 





And thence proceeded forth his words, so much 37 
His voice transmuted from itself, that more 
Was not the very semblance that he wore: 

“The spouse of Christ hath not on blood been fed, 
Mine own, and what from Linus, Cletus, rolled, 
To be made use of in acquiring gold ; 

But that might souls to these high planes be led, 
Sixtus and Pius bled, and midst much woe, 
Calixtus, Urban, saw their life-blood flow. 


*‘Ne’er thought we our successors would divide 46 
The Christian folk, and some, kept down by 
might, 
Move to the left, the rest seat on the right; 
Nor that the keys God did to me confide 
Should e’er be as a banner’s heraldry prized 
Which should lead men in war on the baptized; 
- Nor I be made a seal’s design to sold 
And lying privileges, whereat parts flame 
From this my form, and reddening comes with 


shame. 
“In garb of shepherds over every fold 55 
Are seen from here wolves ravening tear the 
~ sheep! | 


O wrath of God, how long will last thy sleep? 
To drink our blood Coarsines their plans have laid, 

And Gascons haste; O thou beginning fair, 

How threatens thee an ending vile to snare! 
But Providence high, that did, with Scipio’s aid, 

At Rome the glory of the world defend, 

Will, as I think, these wrongs all speedily end. 





Canto XX VII. 425 





Things heard reveal. 





** And thou, my son, whose mortal weight recalls 64 
Thee to the earth again, things heard reveal ; 
What I conceal not, do not thou conceal.” 

And then, as downward shimmering frozen falls 
In flakes our atmosphere’s mist, what time hath 

borne 
To touch the sun the Goat her heavenly horn, 
So those triumphant vapors saw I rise, 
So flaky fill the array of ether there, 
They who round us had wreathed their radiance 
rare. 


Their semblances thus wooed my wondering eyes, 73 
And held them, till the distance lengthened ; then 
They passed beyond my fond, regretful ken. 

And thereupon the Lady, who took heed 
That I no more gazed upward, said: “ See thou 
On yonder Earth what circuit ’s ended now.” 

Since first I looked, and saw the orbs recede, 

Now saw I that I through the arc had passed 
From that first point towards Earth’s limits cast. 


So that I saw where rash Ulysses tacked 82 
Past Gades; and, this side, almost the shore 
Where Jove a burden sweet Europa bore. 

And of this threshing-floor less view had lacked, 
But that the sun beneath my feet had pressed 
A sign and more his journey t’wards the west. 

But still my mind enamored, which ne’er leaves 
Its raptured musings on my ,Lady, yearned 
To find mine eyes on her attractions turned. 


426 Paradiso. 





The Sphere of Primal Motion. 





And if or Art or Nature ever weaves gt 
Meshes divine the eyes to catch and mind 
In human flesh or portraits thence designed, 
Either or all would seem as nought compared 
With the divine delight which o’er me poured 
When turned mine eyes to taste her smiles adored. 
The strength wherewith her countenance me pre- 
pared 
Me from the plane where Leda’s nestlings blazed 
Into the swiftest Heaven divinely raised. 


What part thereof for entrance Beatrice chose 100 
I cannot say, because so uniform all 
The parts are of that life-thronged lofty hall. 
But she, within whose mind my longing rose, 
Me speech vouchsafed with joy such in her smile. » 
That God seemed in her looks to glow the while: 
“ Hence doth that motion on its journey fare 
Which leaves the centre quiet, but the rest 
Moves all with its own restless energy pressed. 


* And in this Heaven, there is no other Where 109 
Than in the Mind Divine, wherein the love 
That moves it is, and power rained from above. 

Circling around it, light and love it span 
As this the others doth, and its domain 
He who encircles it doth sole restrain. 

Its motion’s nature measure none nor plan 
From others gains; it shares to all, as when 
By halves or fifths we portions make of ten. 


Canto XX VII. 427 





Time’s Roots. 





“As to the mode whereby in such a pot 118 
Time hath its roots, while share its leaves the rest, 
This unto thee will suitably be expressed. 

O Covetousness, our common mortal lot 
Thee owns for master; naught us from thee 

saves ; 
We all are whelmed ’neath thine ingulfing 
waves! 

In wills of men full blossoms fair abound, 

But changes the incessant rain that comes 
Into wild yieldings sour the promised plums. 


“True constancy and innocence pure are found 127 
In children only; but in vain one seeks 
For these when seen is down upon their cheeks. 
A prattler, one will all the fasts observe ; 
But, loose his tongue, and, forthwith, he devours, 
In any moon, all food with ravenous powers. 
A lisper see his mother’s wishes serve, 
And to her helping lend; your praises save ; 
The round-voiced child will wish her in her grave. 


“Thus like the sun doth human nature rise, 136 
Whose child she is; the dawn is fair; the night | 
Makes swarthy that which in the morn was white. , 

And that this may not thee too much surprise, 
Reflect that government none is on the earth; 
Thence loses man his chance for heavenly worth. 

But long before the little fractions’ power 
Shall January place within the bounds of spring 
Shall indignation in these circles ring 


42B< #8 Paradiso. 





Fruit nutritious. 





“Until the tempest long-awaited lower, 145 


Fierce whirling sterns where prows are, so that 
mect 


Upon its course may sail the erring fleet, 
And fruit nutritious follow forth the flower.” 


NOTES TO THE TWENTY-SEVENTH CANTO. 


10. “ The torches four.” Saint Peter, Saint James, Saint 
John, and Adam. 

13, 15. “ Such... plumage.” Saint Peter so looked as the 
white planet, Jupiter, would, were it to assume the sanguinary 
hue of the planet Mars. 

22. “ He who usurps.” Boniface the Eighth, alleged to 
have obtained his elevation to the papacy by unrighteous 
methods, and therefore called a usurper. 

25. “ My cemetery.” The Vatican Hill, to which the re- 
mains of Saint Peter were transferred from the catacombs. 

41. “ Linus, Cletus.” Saint Linus was Peter’s immediate 
successor in the See of Rome. 

Saint Cletus succeeded Linus. 

44, 45. “Sixtus and Pius ... Calixtus, Urban.” Saint 
Sixtus was pope, 119-127; Saint Pius, 142-157; and there 
was no Pius the Second until after the time of Dante. 

Saint Calixtus, the martyr, was pope 219-223. The church 
celebrates his death on the fourteenth of October. 

Saint Urban, the martyr, was pope 223-230. 

46, 47. “ Divide the Christian folk.’ An allusion to the 
interminable quarrel between the crown and the mitre, and 
its inevitable results. 

51. “ War on the baptized.” The campaigns against the 
Ghibellines, and especially that conducted against the family 
of Colonna, which involved the destruction of their city, 
Palestrina. 

53. “ Privileges.” Indulgences, stamped with the pontifical 
seal. 








fer. LIBRARS 


OF THE 


PONY ERSITY 
CALIFORNIA 






Canto XX 


Notes. 











55, 50. “ Shepherds ... wolves.” Matthew vii. 15. 

57- “Owrath...howlong.” Psalm xliv. 23. 

58, 59. “ Coarsines ... Gascons.” The allusion is said to 
be to Clement the Fifth and John the Twenty-Second, the 
first a native of Gascony, and made pope in 1305, the second 
a native of Cahors, a town in France, and made pope in 
1316. The latter date makes it evident that the final Cantos 
of the Commedia were written between 1316 and 1321. 

61. “Scipio.” Dante treats these obnoxious popes as hos- 
tile invaders of Christendom, calling for the warlike strategy 
of another Scipio. The thrust is a keen one. 

69. “ Zhe Goat.” The season of snow, when the’sun is in 
Capricorn, from the middle of December to the middle of 
January. 

79, 80, 82, 84, 87. “ Since first... the arc... rash Ulysses 

.@ burden sweet Europa...t'wards the west.” Butler’s 
suggestion is adopted and the reading changed from “ Che 
fa dal mezzo al fine il prima clima,” to “Che va dal mezzo 
al fine de/ primo clima.” And here more than one thing 
must be borne in mind. The middle, “mezzo,” of the Earth 
was, in Dante’s plan of the universe, Jerusalem, or a point 
relatively near to it; and the term first zone, torrid zone, 
“primo clima,” applies only to the zzhadited Earth. This 
construction, in Dante’s time, made the torrid zone about 
ninety degrees. He sometimes, in a boastful spirit as to the 
Mediterranean, speaks of it, with poetic, not scientific, ac- 
curacy, as extending the entire length of this zone. The 
extent of the zone as ninety degrees Dante himself declares 
in his Convito, iii. 5. Since he stopped in the sign of the 
Gemini, at the close of the Twenty-second Canto, he had 
gone through the forty-five degrees remaining of the ninety. 
He had reached, with his eye, at least, “ Gades,” the modern 
Cadiz. He could see the Western Ocean, the scene of the 
mad voyage of Ulysses described at the close of the Twenty- 
sixth Inferno. To the eastward he saw almost to the shores 
of Phoenicia, the scene of the rape of Europa, the eastern 
limit of his beautiful and beloved Mediterranean; and he 


430 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





would have seen further to the eastward, but the sun had 
advanced thirty degrees beyond his place of observation, 
more than a twelfth part of the heavens, a sign of the zodiac, 
and left the east in darkness. Dante stood forty-five degrees 
west of the place where he last looked back. This place, we 
found, at the end of the Twenty-second Canto, to be about 
twenty degrees east of Jerusalem. So, he is now twenty 
degrees east of the Pillars of Hercules; and the sun had ad- 
vanced ten degrees west of the Pillars into the region of the 
waves. This would make his position about that of the 
meridian of Rome. This circumstance, if the supposition 
indulged in be correct, is apparently given by Dante to add 
force to the denunciation which he places in the mouth of 
Saint Peter. In full view, as it were, of the Eternal City, 
the Prince of the Apostles launches from heaven his invec- 
tives against Boniface. 

The statement that since Dante first looked back, the sun 
had made ninety degrees, shows the interval to be six hours. 

Dante’s opportunities for elaborate geographical and 
astronomical allusions are becoming rare; the end of the 
Poem approaches; and he here “makes hay while the sun 
shines,” or, to reject the agricultural metaphor for a sartorial 
one, he is cutting his garment “ according to his cloth.” 


“‘ Quz cuique est fortuna hodie, quam quisque secat spem, 
Sua cuique exorsa laborem 
Fortunamque ferent.” 


eee at iON OF Op io RSP 
y 
epven 63 THe ass 
\3 eee 
“¥ Vey, 
ws S 





J 










The Unexplored} Portion of the 





Globe supposed to be 
Wa’ 





rer, 





DANTE’S PLACES OF OBSERVATION IN THE HEAVENS. 


432 Paradiso. Vee 





. Notes. 





98. “ Leda’s nestlings.” Gemini, the Twins, Castor mortal 
and Pollux immortal. Leda’s mother was Eurythemis. By 
some accounts her father was Glaucus. Jupiter assumed the 
form of a swan, and thus made her the parent of the im- 
mortal. This sign of the zodiac is thence called the nest of 
Leda, “ nido di Leda.” 


109. “ Zhis Heaven.” The Primum Mobile, Primal Motion, — 


the source of the motion of all the spheres below the empyrean. 
This Heaven is a starless one, and is thence called Crystalline. 
The Heaven of the Fixed Stars includes all the stars, even the 
constellations of the zodiac. 

Dante has been supposed, in his statement of the causes 
of motion, to have anticipated by three hundred years the 
discoveries of Galileo. Dante, however, assigned, as the 
cause, desire of union to God in the empyrean. Galileo at- 
tributed motion to an impulse proceeding from the hand of 
God, an impulse calculated for the physical effect intended. 
But it is known that Galileo was an ardent student of the 
Commedia, and that he pursued the meanings of the Poem 
into laborious details. 

120. “ Will suitably be expressed.” In the next Canto. 
Meanwhile Dante will bewail human infirmity as contrasted 
with celestial stability. 

142. “Little fractions’.” The little fractions’ power which 
might result in making January no longer a winter, but 
convert it into a spring, month, was a fault of the Julian 
calendar, corrected two hundred and sixty-one years after 
Dante’s death, in the pontificate of Gregory the Thirteenth, 
who, in 1582, effected the correction by omitting ten nominal 
days after the fourth of October, and by adopting a rule for 
the omission of three leap years in every four hundred years. 
The British parliament adopted the Gregorian.rule in 1752, 
and enacted that the third of September in that year should 
be called the fourteenth. 

The change, as it is thus seen, would amount to about 
eight days in a thousand years; and, as Dante is speaking in 
irony, he says, in effect, that not a long, but a short, time 
will elapse. Ms 








ee ee 


_ << 
- rd 
all 











CANTO TWENTY-EIGHTH. 


ARGUMENT: 


Drawn from the imparadised contemplation of Beatrice’s 
beauty, as one may be drawn by seeing in a mirror before 
him a flambeau behind him, Dante turned to gaze upon the 
central Point in the universe, the Godhead. As he gazed 
upon the celestial scene, Beatrice explained to him the ten 
zones and the law of the motion of each. 

The Heaven of Primal Motion. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: The chorus of all the Heavens singing 
Hosannas. Dante. Beatrice. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Seraphim. The spirits of the 
moral philosophers. 


WHEN thus, against this mortal life’s poor claim 

To our respect the truth she did unroll 

Whose truth and charms imparadise all my soul, 
As in a mirror ’s seen a torch’s flame 

By him who from behind receives its light 

Before it comes within his thought or sight, 
And turns to see if truth the brilliant glass 

Have told, and finds it true as is a note 

Which doth on harmony’s wings serenely float, 


434 Paradiso. 





The Central Point. 





So, doth it through my joyous memory pass, 10 
Was my experience, meeting those fair eyes _ 
Whereof Love made the snares for my surprise, 

And drawn again to that new scope whence glowed, 
Throughout its volume, that which, with due 

heed, 
The attentive soul and awed would therein read, 

A Point beheld I whence a radiance flowed 
So keen it would the sight consume unclosed 


And to such sharpened strength of light opposed, 


And so minute that Point was that would seem, 19 
Placed by its side, the smallest star the eye 
Of mortal sees, a moon amidst our sky. 

And, at such distance, as, perchance, doth gleam 
The halo cincturing round its picturing light 


When renders density there its pathway bright, _ 


Remote thus from the Point a circle of fire 
In speed surpassed, so swiftly was it whirled, 
That moving sphere which first surrounds the 
world ; 


And this enclosed was in another gyre, 28 
That by a third, the third then by a fourth, 
And fifth, and sixth, in due succession forth; 
In width the seventh belt followed thereupon, 
So ample now that Juno’s messenger space 
Less wide would need to beautify nature’s face. 
The eighth and ninth succeeded, and each one 
More slowly moved as coursed its outward way 
Remote the more from where the first had play. 








Canto XX VIII. 435 





The Heavens and Nature. 





And that one which was from the stainless spark 37 
Less distant, had its crystalline flame most clear, 
Because, I think, of Truth to it most near. 

She, then, who on my face perplexed the mark 
Of musing saw: “ From that Point ’t is depend 
The Heavens and Nature, wheresoe’er they tend. 

Observe that circle nearest it, thou, and know 
That swiftness such through burning love it hath 
Which spurs it on its God-appointed path.” 


And queried I: “If would earth’s circles flow 4 

In order such as yonder wheels observe, 

What I see here my mind to rest would serve ; 
But in the world of sense at once we find 

That more divine the circles are the more 

They from the centre outward swell and soar. 
Wherefore if here shall find repose my mind, 

In this miraculous and angelic fane 

Which love and light alone in bounds restrain, 


“T must yet learn how not in mode the same 55 
Go copy and example ; shuns it me; 
Nor can I cause of such diversity see.” 
“Tf that thy fingers be for this knot lame 
No wonder great it is; because, not tried 
In method best, the thing ’s to thee denied.” 
My Lady thus; then said she: “Thou may’st 
solve, 
With this I give thee, this thy maze, and find 
How fade ali doubts before thy subtle mind: 


’ eg 


s 
> 


436 Paradiso. 





The true celestial Norm. 





“Through narrow paths or wide the orbs revolve 64 
According to the virtue more or less 
Their several parts, as thus they move, possess. 
The greater excellence works the greater weal, 
The greater weal the greater orb sustains 
If every part the same perfection gains. 
Therefore this one which doth in its swift wheel 
The universe wrap, doth answer to the one 
Which hath the greater love and knowledge won. 


‘Wherefore if should thy measure virtue be, 73 
And not mere semblance and the rounding form, 
Thou wouldst apply the true celestial norm, 

And then wouldst an agreement marvellous see 
Of harmony strict betwixt the great and small 
Each ruled by that Intelligence guiding all.” 

As when blows Boreas from his favoring cheek, 
And cleanses mantling clouds from out the sky, 
Which erst gave sign of darkling rain-drops nigh, 


Serene the scene is now that was so bleak, 82 
And Nature smiles in all her pageantry fair 
Beneath the blue immensity bright of air; 

So did I seem, soon as my Lady wooed 
Response had given, and driven all doubting far, 
And on me truth gleamed as from heaven a star. 

And, when were ended all her words, was viewed 
A scintillation by each circle given, 

Which flashed like molten iron throughout all 
heaven. 











Canto XXVIII. 437 
The three Triads. 
And every flash its splendid fires renewed, 9 


Till did they far outmillion the array 
That would the king upon the chessboard lay. 


_ And heard I echoing on, from choir to choir, 


“ Hosanna,” unto that fixed Point, which still 
Them holds, as erst, obedient to its Will. 


_ I meditating stood, still touched with doubt, 


When she, “ The primal circles,” said, 
“ Have ‘fore thee Cherubims’ powers and Sera- 
phims’ sped. 


“Thus swift their bounding hoops they follow 
out, 100 

Thus coveted likeness to the Point attain, 
Attainment high as doth their vision reign. 

The other Loves, that there beyond them speed 
And gaze with ardor on the Point Divine, 
Are Thrones ; they end the primal triad’s line. 

And be assured that happiness doth them feed 
As much as do they Truth Divine possess, 
Wherein all intellect doth repose confess. 


“ And shows this readily how so high delight 109 
Is on the faculty high of vision based, 
Not that of love, which is beneath it placed. 
And merit is the measure of such sight, 
Merit by grace sped forward and good will, 
And thus prepared to seek grades loftier still. 
The second triad, which, in this fair spring, 
Eternal buds puts forth, which may not fear 
The. mighty Ram, whose influence comes not 
here, 


438 Paradiso. 





Truth revealed. 





“Doth ever gratefully its hosannas sing 118 
With threefold melody sweet from orders three 
Of joy, which thus threefold is made to be. 

The three in this hierarchy’s zone which shine 
Are, first Dominions, Virtues next, and showers 
Of grace the third attend, of Powers. 

Then, in glad round of dances intertwine 
The Principalities and Archangels ; last 
The Angels, jubilant, taste a bliss so vast. 


“These Orders all have vision high divine, 127 
And influence wield on spheres that speed below ; 
Thus, drawn to God, they spread attraction’s 

glow. 

So great desire in Dionysius wrought 
These Orders to contemplate, that he ranged 
Their stations thus, and them I have not changed. 

But Gregory afterwards new arrangements brought, 
Wherefore, as soon as here his eyes were used, 
He at himself did smile, as disabused. 


“ And that so much of truth mysterious, man _136 
On earth did proffer, wonder need not be, 
For he it him revealed, it here did see, 

With truth still more, that fills each circling span.” 


NOTES TO THE TWENTY-EIGHTH CANTO. 


3. “ Lmparadise.” 


“Thus these two, 
Imparadised in one another’s arms, 
The happier Eden, shall enjoy their fill 
Of bliss on bliss.”’ Paradise Lost, V. 505. 









Canto XX VITI. 439 


Notes. 








10, 11, 12. “So... eyes... snares.” Dante would have 
us understand that Beatrice’s countenance was reflected in 
the sphere of the Seraphim, as a torch’s light would be in a 


mirror. 


15. “ Would therein read.” ‘The translator thus continues 
the simile of the volume. The “volume” appears to be the 
whole volume of a// the Heavens. Good is their common 
central Point. 

32. “ Funo’s messenger.” Iris, or the rainbow, Wonder’s 
daughter. 

42. “ The Heavens and Nature, wheresoeer they tend.” 
The nine Heavens —the planes of the planets, the planes of 
the stars not of our system, the plane of the starless but rest- 
less crystalline space, or the plane of the motionless and in- 
finitely-extending empyrean, with their several orders of 
celestial inhabitants, and their several hierarchies — all this 
has received attention in the notes to the First Canto, and to 
them the reader should have reference for the better under- 
standing of the present Canto. 

45. “ God-appointed.” Everywhere in the Paradiso swiftness 
indicates fervor. 

70. “ This one.” The crystalline Heaven, the swiftest of 
all, wherein Dante and Beatrice now are. 

78. “ Zach ruled.” This profusion of verbiage (a sore 
affliction to the translators and commentators) appears to me 
merely and simply to mean that velocity and excellence are 
regulated by the amount of virtue imparted, and, the seat 
and source of virtue being God, He imparts velocity and ex- 
cellence to the heavenly planes in proportion to their near- 
ness to Him. 

This is a hint towards, not a realization of, the scientific 
law announced by Galileo. 

79. “ Boreas from his favoring cheek.” Boreas is the north- 
wind, regarded in the Grecian mythology as a deity, and 
called by the poets the son of Astreeus and Aurora. Dante 
here has reference, probably, to the saying that “ fair weather 
cometh out of the north.” od xxxvii. 22. 


440 Paradiso. 





Notes. 









91, 92, 93. “Flash .. . outmillion the array ... upon the 
chessboard.” The story is that the inventor of the game of 
chess exhibited it to a Persian king, who, in his delight, re- 
quested the exhibitor to name some present from the royal 
munificence. The inventor asked only one grain of wheat 
doubled sixty-four times, once for each square of the chess- 
board. The king was glad to comply, but the computation 
ran into millions of millions of bushels, the product of all the 
harvests of the globe since the beginning of time. 

116, 117. “ Eternal buds ... the mighty Ram.” The un- 
changing spring of Paradise, where the alternating seasons, 
and the influences of decay are unknown. 

122, 123, 130, 133. “ Dominions, Virtues, Powers ... Dion- 
ysius ... Gregory.” Dionysius arranged the Celestial Hier- 
archy in triads as follows: 

1. Angels, Archangels, Principalities ; 

2. Powers, Virtues, Dominions ; ' 

3. Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim. 

The arrangement made by Saint Gregory the Great was: 

1. Angels, Archangels, Virtues ; . 

2. Powers, Principalities, Dominions ; . | 

3. Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim. 

Dionysius was an Athenian converted by Saint Paul. Acts 
xvii. 34: ‘Dionysius the Areopagite.” His work Zhe Celes- 
tial Hierarchy is the great storehouse of all that relates to 
the denizens of the celestial spheres; but some are inclined 
to assign the work to a Dionysius of the sixth century. 

138. “ For he... it here did see.” Saint Paul speaks of 
one who “was caught up into paradise, and heard onsen 
able words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.” 2 Cor- 
inthians xii. 4. It is supposed that Saint Paul is here makes 
ing of himself. 








CANTO TWENTY-NINTH. 
. ARGUMENT: 


Beatrice continues in discourse. She treats of the creation 
of Angels, matter, and men, and of the purposes and plans 
of God therein, and deals severely with pastors whose per- 
sonal ambition leads them to forget the Gospel and to 
neglect their flocks. 
Still the Heaven of Primal Motion. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Dante. Beatrice. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The Seraphim. The spirits of the 
moral philosophers. 


So long as do the babes, Latona’s joys, 
The Ram and Scales the signs that o’er them 
soar, 
Upon the horizon’s belt their radiance pour ; 
So long as them the zenith holds in poise, 
Till from the brilliant girdle their quick change 
Of hemispheres doth that level disarrange ; 
Not longer Beatrice silence kept; she stood 
Smile-painted, while upon the Point intent 
Her gaze she held, mine being with splendor 
spent, 


442 Paradiso. 





Every When and every Where. 





And then resumed: “I speak, for that which 
would 10 
By thee be sought I know, having seen it there 
Where centres every When and every Where. 
Not for increase unto Himself of good, 
A thing impossible, but that might thus show 
His beams his glory forth, in endless glow, 
Beyond time’s limit or aught limit more, 
In His eternity, where His will controlled, 
He did from His own love new loves unfold. 


“Not as if torpid did He lie before ; 19 
For neither After nor Before had place 
In goings forth of God through waves of space. 
Out from his hands did free from defect pass 
Unmingled, mingled, form and matter, winged 
E’en as three arrows from a bow three-stringed. 
And as doth flash in crystal, amber, glass, 
A sunbeam so that from its coming nought 
Of time elapses till its ray is caught, 


So from their Lord did His three arrows mixed 28 
Flash into being forth with one effect 
Which time’s discrimination doth reject. 

Order at once created was and fixed 
In substances, and highest heights were those 
Wherein pure form, through this creation, rose. 

Mere passive power the lowest levels took ; 
Midway was form with power commingled found 
In strict conjunction ne’er to be unbound. 


a 





a 


Canto XXIX. - 443 





Saint Jerome. 





“True, thou wilt find supposed in Jerome’s book, 37 
That Angels ages long created were 
Before was made aught else; but look with care, 

And thou wilt see that this truth forms the aim 
In many places of inspired souls 
Whose spirit wise the Holy Ghost controls. 

And even reason somewhat grasps the same, 

For that these Motors could their skies neglect 
So long all probability doth reject. 


“Thus, when and where, then, had these loves 
their Fount, 46 
And how, thou knowest ;* so that of thy desires 
Already lie extinct in thee these fires. 

Ere one in reckoning could to twenty count, 

A portion of these Angels, falling, brought 
Disturbance to your elements creature-fraught. 

Remained the rest, and then, as Motors, first 

Commenced their circling, with such depth of 
peace 
They ne’er from such delightful labor cease. 


“ What caused that fall the fatal pride accursed ss 
Of him was whom thou sawest constrained within 
The deepest depth of all the world of sin. 

And those thou seest the lowliness had to trace 
Their origin to His bounty free who made 
Their souls intelligent in angelic aid. 

And therefore was their vision, through His grace 
Enlightening and their own deserts, so raised 
That Him their full and ready wills give praise. 


444 Paradiso. 





Beatrice in Discourse. 





**T would thee shield from any grain of doubt 64 
That to receive this grace hath merit great 
As is his joy that welcomes it elate. 
Now in this conststory round about 
May’st thou gaze freely, and need prompting 
none, 
If these my words thy favoring mind have won, 
But since upon the earth your schoolmen teach 
Of this angelic nature, and instil 
The idea that memory’s theirs, hearing, and will, 


“More will I say, that thou may’st easily reach 73 
The truth that they confound in homilies there, 
And shun equivocation’s lurking snare, 

These substances angelic, in the face 
Of God rejoicing, ne’er have turned their sight 
From that high Mirror’s all-embracing light, 

And doth none object thence their vision chase ; 
And hence no need have they of memory’s aid, 
Since ’fore their face is all that’s known dis- 

played. 


“And thus, below, men walk.in waking dreams; 82 
Sincere in error some, and others rash ; 
And of rebuke the last deserve the lash. 
Philosophy’s one path should reach its themes ; 
But you transports a restless love of show 
And that conceit to learning true a foe. 
But even this fault celestial anger less 
Provokes than when God’s word is set aside, 
Or from its meaning fair distorted wide. 





Canto XXIX. 445 


The Word of God. 








“ Reck they not, there, the blood and sore distress 9: 
Its sowing cost, and what delight he gives 
Who with humility in its precepts lives. 

Each for appearance strives ; each would display 
His own inventions strange ; and while increase 
The preacher’s tropes, the Gospel holds its peace. 

One saith, that, in Christ’s Passion, went astray 
The moon, its disk turned backward, till it 

screened 
From earth the sun, its form so intervened. 


*¢ Another saith that of its own accord 100 
The sun withdrew, and did to all, to Jews, 
And Indian tribes, and Spain, its light refuse. 
Lapi and Bindi Florence doth afford 
In number less than fables such as these 
That every year her pulpit-orators please, 
Please so much that the lambs, poor ignorant souls, 
Come back from pasture fed alone on wind ; 
And no excuse have these wise orators blind. 


“Christ’s history no such words as these unfolds: 109 
‘Go forth, my followers, preach ye idle tales,’ 
But gave them a foundation that ne’er fails ; 

And from brave lips so rang his mission plain 
That, in the war the fires of Faith to light, 

The Gospel served for shields and lances bright. 

Now men go forth with flippant jestings vain 
To preach, and if runs round the indulgent smile, 
The cowl puffs out, but questions nought the 

while. 


———. 


446 Paradiso. 





The Fables of the Pulpit. 





“ But in the cowl makes such a bird his nest — 38 
That, if the crowd it saw, they would perceive 
What pardons given their consciences relieve ; 

For which on earth the folly’s so confessed 
That, without evidence, but on promises mock, 
They would together on any occasion flock. 

By this, Saint Anthony’s school make fat his swine, 
And plenty of others, yet more swinish, pay 
Who give unstamped, their charges to defray. 


“‘ But our digression great is from the line, 127 
To which turn back, forthwith, thy wandering 
eyes ; 


Short time short path would now to us advise. 
Angelic natures throng so in this field 

Celestial, that ne’er yet was mortal speech, 

Nor fancy, that their numbers full could reach, ° 
And if thou notest that which is revealed 

By Daniel, thou wilt in his thousands find 

A number infinite finite lurks behind. 


“The Primal Light that nature makes divine _136 
By modes as many is received thereby 
As through heaven’s vault angelic splendors fly. 
Hence, inasmuch as on the heart’s design 
The affection followeth, love’s diversely found | 
Fervid or lukewarm in a lengthening round. 
Behold thou now the height and breadth unrolled 
The Eternal Power commands, a Mirror, shared 
In parts so many, yet in nought impaired, 








ee ee pe ae 


Canto XXTX. 447 





Unity. 





_ “And One remaining, as in days of old.” 145 


NOTES TO THE TWENTY-NINTH CANTO. 


I, 2, 3. “Babes ... signs ... radiance.’ The babes, 
Latona’s joys, are Apollo and Diana, the Sun and Moon. 


_ They, when the Sun is in Aries, and the Moon in Libra, illu- 


minate the horizon at the same moment, the Sun setting in 
the east, the full Moon rising, opposite, in the west. So long 
as they remain poised on the horizon, as by an invisible 


_ balance suspended from the zenith, so long did Beatrice 


remain silent. 

16, 17, 18. “ Time... eternity ... new loves.” “The 
angelic nature,” says Saint Thomas of Aquin, Swmma, i. 61. 
3, “was made before the creation of time” and after the 
beginning of eternity. For xove amori, new loves, some 
editions read ovz amori, the xzze loves, the nine angelic 
bands who, as hierarchs of the Heavens, move their respec- 
tive spheres. One of these editions is the Cassinese. 

20. “ After nor Before.” In eternity there is no After nor 
Before. These are relative words which apply only to time. 

23, 24, 28, 29. “ Mingled form and matter ... three arrows 
.. » three-stringed ... three arrows ... with one effect.” 

1. Form, the Angelic nature; 

2. Matter, the elements ; 

3. The two mingled, the human being. 

Saint Thomas of Aquin, as we have seen, defines form as 
the principle by which we think, whether that principle be 


denominated intellect or intellectual soul. 


35, 30. “ Midway... form... power... ne'er to be 
unbound.” 

1. Midway, that is, in the human nature; 

2. Form, that is, the Angelic nature ; 

3. Power, that is, the thinking capacity, the intellectual 
soul. 

Their union, that is, the union of angelic nature and soul, 
suspended by death, will be renewed and perpetuated at the 
resurrection. 


448 Paradiso. 





Notes. 





37. “Jerome.” Of Saint Jerome, Darras, History of the 
Catholic Church, i. 565, gives this exalted praise: “ Saint 
Jerome brought to the service of the truth more learning than 
any other Father of the Latin Church. His immense labors’ 
on the Scriptures are equalled only by his incredible mortifi- 
cation, his love of retreat and poverty, and his burning char- 
ity, which moved the great Saint Augustine to compare him 
to Saint Paul.” Born about 340. Died420. The Church 
celebrates the festival of his death on the 30th of September. 

38, 39. “ Angels... before... aught else.” Saint Jerome 
was not alone in this opinion. It was entertained by other 
Fathers of the Church. They assumed that the creation of 
the Angelic natures preceded by long ages the creation of 
the rest of the universe. Their opinion was refuted by other 
theologians. It is refuted by Saint Thomas of Aquin, 
Summa, i. 61. 3. 

96. “ Preacher ... gospel.” Saint Chrysostom, he of the 
Golden Mouth, in preaching to all audiences quite carried 
them away with his eloquence. His military audiences would 
beat the pavement with their swords, and salute him as the 
“Thirteenth Apostle.” But, in discoursing on this subject 
in his Homilies, he censures this and all other manifestations 
of applause, and says he is desirous to see the praise of his 
sermons in the improvement of the lives of his hearers. 

103. “ Lapi and Bindi.” Familiar names in Florence, Lapo 
being the abbreviation of Jacopo, and Bindi of Aldobrandi. 

115. “ Flippant jestings vain.” 

‘* He that negotiates between God and man, 
As God’s ambassador, the grand concerns 
Of judgment and of mercy, should beware 
Of lightness in his speech. ’T is pitiful 
To court a grin, when you should woo a soul; 
To break a jest, when pity would inspire 
Pathetic exhortation ; and t’ address 
The skittish fancy with facetious tales 


When sent with God’s commission to the heart ! ”’ 
Cowrkrr, Tash, ii. 


117. “ The cowl puffs out.” With conceit? Or with a re- 
Sponsive smile? Or with both? 





Canto XXTX. 449 


Notes. 











124. “Saint Anthony's ... swine.” Saint Anthony, sur- 
named the Great, was a native of Egypt. Born 251. Died 
356, at the age of 105. At the age of twenty he renounced 
the world, and acquired wide renown and reverence as the 
Patriarch of the Desert. An old tradition represents him as 
having humbled himself to the occupation of tending swine. 
This was the enforced occupation of Saint Patrick in a state 
of slavery. 

125, 126. “Pay unstamped.” Giving false indulgences, 
without the true stamp upon them, in return for offerings 
and alms. 

129. “ Short time awe path.’ The end of the Poem ap- 
proaches. , 

135. “ Jnjinite finite.’ “Thousand thousands ministered 
unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before 
him.” Daniel vii. 10. 


CANTO THIRTIETH. 
ARGUMENT: 


Dante’s eyes being now unequal to the task of further con- 
templating the height of heaven, he turns to the contem- 
plation of Beatrice, to treat of whom as her beauty deserves 
he confesses himself powerless. She calls his attention to 
their progress. They have now reached the tenth Heaven, 
the Empyrean, the immediate presence of God. In the 
midst of radiant fulminations like incessant lightning, he 
beholds a river of light, incredibly beautiful, of which, at 
the instance of Beatrice, he drinks. Then, his knowledge 
being amplified, he perceives that the sparkles which flash 
from the river, and the rubies and topazes which plunge 
and float and glory in it, are the Angels and other Heavenly 
Creations and the Souls of the Saints. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Dante. Beatrice. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The immediate presence of God. 
The Rose of the Blessed. The eminently happy exalted 
to the Empyrean. The angelic creations. 


Say that, six thousand miles from us remote, 

The sixth hour glows, and that this world in shade 
That ’s nearly level by the sun is laid, 

And that, while we the mid-sky’s oceans note, 
Fails, here and there, to send its rays, so far 

As to our depth, a dim, departing star, 

And that, as comes, with her excelling rays, 

The handmaid of the sun, the pageant dies, 
And fades each brightest torch along the skies: 





Canto XXX. ASI 





The exquisite Beauty of Beatrice. 





E’en so that Triumph, which forever plays 10 
About the Point which me o’ercame, and beams, 
Enclosing that which it to circle seems, 

Little by little from my vision fled. 

Wherefore my love, and loss of other view, 
Me back to Beatrice and her homage drew. 

If what of her hath been already said 
Were in one single eulogy grouped, ’t would ill 
Her meed of merit at this moment fill. 





The beauty which in her I now beheld 19 
B’yond mortals goes ; her Maker, I believe, 
Hath power alone its fulness to receive. 

Myself I own by obstacles stronger spelled 
Than in his labored theme was ever bard 
Whose verses, light or grave, brought problems 

hard ; 

For, as of eyes quelled by the sun’s bright burst, 
E’en so the exquisite memory of that smile 
Doth me of words and forming mind beguile. 


Not from that day when on this earth I first 28 
Her face beheld, up to this moment, song 
Have I e’er failed to strew her path along, 
Bug now I own my limping numbers lame; 
An artist sometimes finds his powers surpassed, 
And mine succumb to beauty’s lance at last. 
And I must leave her to a greater fame 
Than any that my trumpet:-gives, which sounds, 
Now, hastening notes, which mark this labor’s 
bounds, 


452 Paradiso. 





God’s immediate Presence. 





Such as she then stood forth, with gesture meet 37 
For leadership high, and words: “ Stops now our 
flight, 
From widest Heaven, in one that is pure light; 
Light intellectual with love’s rays replete, 
Love of true good, with ecstasy’s rounded joy, 
Joy passing sweetness, and without alloy. 
Here shalt thou look on either mighty host 
That Paradise claims; one in the self-same guise 
That at the judgment dread shall meet thine eyes.” 


As when terrestrial levin quells the boast 46 
Of strongest eyesight, and all outlines fade 
Where hath such nimble splendor’s glory played, 

So round me flashed a living splendor’s levin, 

And left me swathed in such a veil that nought 
Mine eyes beheld, in its effulgence caught. 

“The Eternal Love which stills this radiant Heaven 
Salutes the coming soul with welcome such 
As fits its candle flame divine to touch.” 


No sooner had I felt the assuring might 55 
These brave words gave me, than my strength 
was grown, 


I felt, beyond all power that was mine own, . 
And knew I kindled in me newer light, 

Such that exists no light whate’er so pure, 

Light whose keen force mine eyes could not 

___._ endure. 

And light I saw that like a river flowed, 
With sudden flushed effulgence, ’twixt two banks 
Where joyous spring displayed her flowery ranks. 





‘ 
. 
' 
| 


Canto XXX. 453 


A River of Light. 











From out this river living sparkles glowed, 64 
And sought the flowers, which them did so enfold 
As doth a ruby its incasing gold; 

And, then, as if inebriate with perfume, 

They plunged again into the marvellous stream, 
Where, going, coming, sparkles ever gleam. 
“The burning wish, which makes thee now pre- 
sume 
Of what thou seest to have intelligence, me 
Doth please the more, the more it flames in thee ; 


© “But meet it is thou of this water taste, 73 
Before be lessened in thee thirst so great,” 
The Sunshine said, which made mine eyes elate, 
And added this: “The river herbage-graced, 
The topazes that go and come, the flowers, 
Are laughing prefaces clear of coming powers, 
Not powers that labor bring to those who know, 
For on thy side the failure is, the strain 
The vision claims thine eyes cannot yet gain.” 


There is no babe his dimpled arms doth throw 82 
Towards his mother’s breasts, if he awake 
Beyond the usual time her milk to take, 

So suddenly as did I, that I mine eyes 
Might aiding mirrors make, in waves which flow 
That they, there entering, may thence better go. 

I stooped; mine eyelids’ eaves thence drank; the 

guise 
It had was changed forthwith from long to round, 
A lake it seemed with jewelled rivage bound. 


—_—_— 


CY ea 


454 Paradiso. 





The Rose of the Blessed. 





Then, as a company masked, if they divest 9r 
Themselves of their disguises, forms quite far 
They show from those the masks but seemed to 

mar, 

So shone, in greater pomp, that company blest, 
The flowers, the sparks, so that, made plain, 

were given 
Unto mine eyes both radiant Courts of heaven. 
_—"=“"Splendor of God! by means whereof I saw 
The lofty Triumph of thy Kingdom; saw 
Truth crowned; me aid to say how it I saw! 





A light there is, above, a guiding law, 100 
Which to each creature his Creator shows ; 
Each creature thence the peace of happiness 

knows ; | 
“TY circular form expands.to such extent 
That its circumference, placed around the sun, 
KO { Would be a girdle not to full length run. 
( 7 | Of rays it is in marvellous manner blent, 
\ Which Primal Motion’s summit forth reflects, 


Whose power and life derive thence their effects. 
ae 





And, as a cliff, in crystal at its base, 109 
Itself as in a mirror sees, as though 
To admire of flowers and verdure its rich glow, 
So, round about the light, in lofty place, 
I mirrored saw, in thousand ranks and more, 
All those returned from us to glory’s door. 
And, if, within itself, so great a light 
Collects the lowest row, what space receives 
This ample Rose in its extremest leaves! 


Canto XXX: 455 


The Stoles of White. 








My vision, in that amplitude vast, and height, 
Lost not itself, but made its glad employ 
To see how much and what was that great joy. 
Nearness, as distance, there no difference shows, 
For where doth God immediately hold sway, 
No call there is awed nature’s laws to obey. 
Into the yellow of the Eternal Rose, 
Far-spreading, multiplied, and breathing praise 
Of perfume to the Sun’s ne’er-wintering rays, 


As one who fain would speak yet silence keeps, 127 
Me Beatrice onward drew: “ Behold the stoles 
Of white,” she said, “how numerous midst these 

souls! 

Behold how wide our city’s circuit sweeps! 

Behold our seats so thronged that few hence- 
forth 
Are needed to make full the lists of worth! 

Before thou in this wedding-feast take part, 

On that great throne, already crowned, thine eyes 
Regard with earnest look of pleased surprise, 


“Shall sit the soul of one who from kind heart 136 
Shall Italy lessons give ere ready she ; 
Henry he comes, and shall Augustus be. 
But of blind covetousness ye feel the spell ; 
It hath you made like to a child perverse 
Who dies of hunger yet drives off the nurse, 
And, in the sacred forum then shall dwell 
A Prefect such that on no road, or hid 
Or high, will he to walk with him be bid. 


456 Paradiso. 





Henry. Boniface. 





“ But not long time will God his presence bear 145 
In the holy office; he shall find his place 
Where Simon Magus shares deserved disgrace, 

And make him of Alagna lower fare.” 





NOTES TO THE THIRTIETH CANTO. 


1, 2. “Six thousand miles... shade.” The sixth hour is 
the glowing hour of noon, and when noon is some six thou- 
sand miles “from us remote,” the dawn is approaching, the 
sun is nearing our horizon, and each “ dim, departing star,” 
“each bright torch along the skies,” disappears. “The hand- 
maid of the sun” is Aurora, the Dawn, daughter of Hyperion 
and Theia. 

10. “ 7riumph.” ‘The nine Heavens. 

43. “‘ Here shalt thou look.” Were Dante would realize 
what he had read in Holy Writ: ; 

“The peace of God, which passeth all understanding.” 
Philippians iv. 7. 

“One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through 
all, and 77 you all”... or, “72 us all.” ...“ He ascended far 
above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.” Zphesians 
iv. 1-16. 

“O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the 
earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.” Psalm 
viii. 1. 

“The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above 
the heavens.” Psalm cxiii. 4. 

44. “One.” The Angelic host. 

61. “ Light like a river.” “ A fiery stream issued and came 
forth from before him.” Daniel vii. ro. 

“And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as 
crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the 
Lamb.” Revelation xxii. 1. 

63, 64, 66. “ Flowery ranks ... living sparkles... ruby .. 
gold.” The flowers are the stl of the blessed, akinbha ay as 


Canto XXX. 457 





Notes. 








gold; the sparkles are the Angelic creations, brilliant as 
rubies. 

66, 77. “ Ruby ... topazes.” The confusion attests Dante’s 
intoxication. 

89. “ From long to round.” ‘The river had become a lake. 
Its “jewelled rivage’”’ was the Angelic host. Venturi says 
_ the river symbolizes the outpouring of the divine nature upon 
the creatures of God; the lake, the change “from long to 
round,” symbolizes the return of this outpouring to its divine 
Source, as to its origin and destination, its eternal abode. 

97, 98, 99. “J saw...saw...lsaw.” “Vidi... vidi... 
_ vidi.” Another peculiarity in Dante’s rhymes: védz rhymed 
_ with itself, “to express,” says Longfellow, “the intenseness 

of his vision;” or, we might say, to represent, by the religious 
fervor of the threefold expression, the solemnity of his feel- 
ings. 

136, 138. “ Henry... Augustus.” A hint, at once, of the 

_imperialism of the Poet, and of his devotion to Virgil, always 
identified with Octavian. Henry, Duke of Luxemburg, be- 
came, in 1308, Henry the Seventh, Emperor of Germany. 
Dante hailed him with enthusiasm as the deliverer of Italy, 
as a wise and rightful ruler, the herald of order, peace, justice, 
rectitude. Henry, to the infinite grief of Dante and all other 
good men, died in 1313, but this event, in view of the assumed 
date of the Poem, 1300, is spoken of prophetically. His 
throne is ready in heaven. 

“*On that great throne, already crowned, 
. shall sit” 
the soul of Henry. 

139. “ Ye.” Ye, of Italy. 

143. “A Prefect.” Pope Clement the Fifth (1305-1314). 
See the notes to the Nineteenth Inferno. The text is an im- 
plied denunciation of the career of that pontiff in contrast 
with the admirable record of Henry the Seventh. 

146. “Simon Magus.” Simon we have met in the Nine- 
teenth Inferno, third Pit of the Evil-Pits. Milman, H7story 
of Christianity, ii. 97, intimates that Simon claimed to be 


458 | Paradiso. 





Notes. 





God, or, at least, Adam, and that his companion, Helena, the 
possessor of wonderful beauty, was the Holy Spirit, or, at 
least, Eve. A self-deification was his; hers were the attri- 
butes of Psyche and Minerva. In other words, he was an 
arch-impostor, and Dante’s allusion to him here, in connec- 
tion with Boniface, is another vehement thrust at a political 
enemy. 

148. “ Him of Alagna.’ Pope Boniface the Eighth, a 
native of Alagna, now Anagni, whom is awaiting a place in 
the Evil-Pits, into which place he is to be pushed downwards 
into the crevices of the rocks, that Clement the Seventh may 
take his place. 


—— wea ee 


a a ee ee ee 


ian elt il Uden 





CANTO THIRTY-FIRST. 
ARGUMENT: 


The saintly multitude was arranged like the leaves of a great 
white Rose, effulgent, and sharing the light of an efful- 
gence of which the centre, infinitely glorious, was God; 
while the heavenly choirs now soared aloft to gaze upon 
God, now descended into the leaves of the Rose. Saint 
Bernard, approaching Dante, shows him Beatrice enthroned, 
and she rewards his gaze with a smile. The saint then di- 
rected his attention to the Blessed Virgin, from whose seat 
flashed radiance, while waved around her their banners 
thousands of Angels. 

The Empyrean. 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Saint Bernard. Dante. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The immediate presence of God. The 
Blessed Virgin. The celestial multitudes. The heavenly 
choirs. The Rose of the Blessed. The eminently happy 
exalted to the Empyrean. Beatrice enthroned. 


AND so, in form a snow-white Rose, these seats 
Displayed to me the saintly host allied 
By Christ’s own blood to Him, and made His 

Bride. 

But th’ other host that, winged, with anthems greets 
His glory who doth fill it with his love, 
And gave it, kind, such noble birth above, 

Even as a swarm of bees that, now sunk deep 
In flowers, again through sunlight soars 
To where it all its labors’ sweetness stores, 


460 Paradiso. 





The trinal Light. 





Into the mighty flower sank down, to reap 

Its leaves’ so lucent sweets, and then, 
To where its love lives ever, rose again. 

~~ Of living flame their faces were, and gold 
Their wings, and all the rest so white 
No snow e’er shone with dazzling gleam so 

bright. 
-~An@ as from tier to tier their legions rolled, 
~ They somewhat kindled of that zeal and peace 


Wherein wings fanning loins showed their in- 
crease. 


_ Nor came of shadow aught, betwixt the flower 

_ And that impending host, nor view 

__ Impeding; shone its splendor through ; 

\ For hath the light divine such piercing power — 

) The universe throughout, as merit claims, 
‘That obstacle none defeats its arrows’ aims, 

“This realm secure, replete with peace and joy, 
And thronged with people ancient, and with new, 

____ For all its gaze and love but one Point knew. 


/ 
} 


19 


O Trinal Light, which doth their sight enjoy, 28 
Let thy star’s single glory cast its glow 
Upon our frowning tempest here below! 

If the barbarians, roaming from some land 
Which sees forever Helice beam on high, 
Pleased, with her son, to tread the polar sky, 

Beholding Rome and all her structures grand, 
Were wonder-struck, when was the Lateran fair 
Above all things mortality may impair, 





3 
> 
: 
: 
‘ 


: 


Canto XX XI. 461 





Beatrice enthroned. 





_ I, who from human to divine had passed, 37 


From time unto eternity, the plain 

That Florence holds to people just and sane, 
What strong amazement held me fettered fast! 

This, and my joy together, not to speak 

My pleasure made it, nor discourse to seek. 
And, as a pilgrim, whose delighted awe 

Takes in the temple of his vow, his heart 

In high hope some day all he sees to impart, 


So, wheresoe’er the radiant ranks I saw, 46 
Now up, now down, and to the furthest bound, 
Those living lights mine eyes I compassed round. 
I faces saw, where moved sweet charity’s dance, 
Faces which His light, and their own smile, 
graced, 
Gestures where every charm its seal had placed. 
The general form of Paradise had my glance 
Thus comprehended, and not yet my mind 
Had been to any special part confined, 


When turned I round again with kindling thought s5 
To ask my Lady to renew her speech, 
And me, not sure of things suspended, teach. 


_ An answer came, but not from her I sought ; 


I deemed I should see Beatrice, but mine eyes 
An Old Man saw, with vesture of the skies. 

With joy benignant glowed his eyes and face, 
His attitude seemed all made of pity kind, 
Such as we in the tenderest fathers find. 


462 Paradiso. 





Saint Bernard. 





And “ She, where is she?” thus my words found 

place. 64 

“‘ Me Beatrice sends to thee from mine own seat, 
That in her stead thy wishes I may meet. 

And if thou dost the first rank’s third round scan 
Thou shalt her see where hath desert enthroned 
Her merits high which Heaven’s decree hath 

owned.” 

Replied I not, but swift mine eyesight ran, 

And found her seated, and in guise so bright 
She seemed a crown reflecting infinite light. 


Not from the loftiest place where thunders roll 73. 
Is any mortal eye so distant, placed 
Where are the deepest sea-floor’s windings traced, 

As mine from Beatrice was, but no control 
Had distance here ; here form was not obscure 
Through medium made, but clear came down and 

pure. 

“OQ Lady! Fount wherefrom my hope hath grown! 
Thou who, that I might safe be, deemed it meet 
In Hell to leave the imprint of thy feet! 


“ For all mine eyes have seen, I freely own 82 
The virtue and the grace, as from thy power 
And bounty coming, as a freshening shower. 

To me, a slave, comes freedom in the end, 
By all expedients brought, through ways divine 
That power had yielded into hands of thine. 

Do thou me still thy generous aid extend, 
So that this soul of mine, by thee made fair, 
May, to thee pleasing, from its body fare.” 








Canto XXXI. 463 


Dante lost in Wonder. 








_ And she, so distant, seemed to make a smile gr 


Her answer; and a look I further earned ; 
But then she to the Eternal Fountain turned. 
“That close,” my blest guide said to me the while, 
“Of this thy journey thou may’st gain, have 
prayer 
_And love divine thee given into my care. 


Let, then, thy vision fly, around, above ; 


To contemplate these beauties will prepare 
Its mounting higher to radiant scenes more rare. 


“And she, Heaven’s Queen, whom I with all of 
love 100 
_Adore that ardor gives, will yield all grace ; 
She knows full well her faithful Bernard’s face.” 
And, e’en as he whom some Croatian glade 
Sends forth to gaze at our Veronica, known 
To holy fame, and dear to pilgrims grown, 
Says in his thought, the while it is displayed, 
“ And was like this thy very look adored, 
O thou true God, Christ Jesus and my Lord?” 


Such was I there, while I, of this blest man, 109 
Gazed at the living charity, he whom here 
Brought contemplation to that Peace so near. 

“This glad life, son of grace,” thus pleasing ran 
His speech, “thou may’st not wholly know, if 

place 
Thou shouldst thine eyes upon the lowest space; 

But follow on the circles, far and far, 

Until thou shalt the Queen enthroned behold, 
Whom all her realm doth reverently enfold.”’ 





464 Paradiso. 


The Oriflamme high. 





I raised mine eyes; and, as the morning star «8 
A lustre greater heralds that attends 
The western skies when day’s long journey ends, — 
Thus, as mine eyes their journey made elate 
From vale to mount, I saw a part surpass, 
Remote, the splendor of the greater mass: 
And, even as there, where we the pole await 
By Phaéthon illy-guided, blazes higher 
The light, while slackens on the sides its fire, 


So did that oriflamme high, which meek peace 
brings, 127 3 

Gleam brightest in the centre, while became, __ 
On either side, more dim the lessening flame. 

And at that centre, with expanded wings, 
Of jubilant Angels, thousands met my gaze, 
Effulgent all, but graced in various ways. 

I at their songs and sports saw Beauty smile 
_A smile which gladness gave to those redeemed _ 
Shown in the light which from their faces beamed. — 


7 





E’en had I wealth of speech and brilliant style 136 
To mine imagination suited, ne’er wouldI  —s 
The smallest part of that enchantment try. | 

Bernard, as soon as he saw me intent 
Upon that fervid fervor, turned his gaze | 
With such intense affection t’wards its rays, 

That with my soul warmth yet unknown was blent. — 





i 


Canto XXXI. 465 


Notes. 








NOTES TO THE THIRTY-FIRST CANTO. 


2. “ The saintly host.” The blessed, the saints, the Church. 

4. “ Th’ other host.” The Angels, and angelic creations. 

6. “ Bees.” We may easily suppose that Dante had here 
in mind the Fourth Georgic. 

32. “ Helice.” The nymph Callisto, beloved and slain by 
Jupiter, was changed by him into the Great Bear, and her son 
into the Little Bear, constellations revolving around the 
northern pole. 

60. “ An Old Man.” Saint Bernard,’ the leader of the 
Second Crusade. Born tog1, died 1153. Darras, Hestory of 


the Catholic Church, speaks of him as “ nature’s favorite, ever 


winning the enthusiastic love of all.” Hénault, A4drégé Chron- 
ologigue, pronounces his sermons “ chefs-d’ceuvres de senti- 
ment et de force,” masterpieces of feeling and power. The 
Church celebrates his festival on the twentieth of August. 
64. “ And she, where is she?” Beatrice. She had re- 
turned to sit by the side of Rachel. Rachel is an emblem of 
Divine Contemplation. Inferno, ii. 101; Paradiso, xxxii. 8. 
104. “ Veronica.” Each of the four piers supporting the 
dome of Saint Peter’s is made the receptacle of a relic of in- 
estimable value. One has the head of Saint Andrew the 
Apostle ; another a portion of the True Cross; another the 
lance of the Crucifixion ; another the Holy Face. The Holy 
Face is sometimes called the Veronica, or True Image, of 
Christ. The divine features are shown on a handkerchief 


__ said to have been handed to Our Lord on his way to Calvary, 


by a pitying woman whose identity is lost. It is said that 
Our Lord left, for a moment, to Simon the Cyrenian the 
burden of the Cross, applied the handkerchief to his face, 
and returned it to the woman, who found it marked with the 
exact imprint of his adorable countenance. 

124. “ The pole.” Of the chariot of the sun. 

127. “ Orifamme.” As the word imports, a combina- 
tion of gold and fire, a war- banner of brilliant tintage. 
Dante says the oriflamme of peace “beams brightest in the 
centre.” 


CANTO THIRTY-SECOND. 


ARGUMENT: 





oe. = 
; : ae -" 
aay 
> ? =, Wie) | 
a fa > he tallies 6 ~ 
Se Tee a ard * . 
" we a ae ~* ; 
‘> ld Im os e* 4h" 
he = Ss ar 


Saint Bernard explains the divisions of the Rose of the 
Blessed, and discourses on law and grace as controlling — 
admission to the highest seats in heaven. Dante beholds — 
the Empress of the Skies. Saint Bernard urges him to 7 
invoke by earnest prayer her intercession, that he me 
accorded a view of the Almighty Father. 

The Empyrean. 


; 


* 


PERSONS SPEAKING: Saint Bernard. Dante. ¢ 7 


- 


PERSONS APPEARING: The immediate presence of God. 
Angels. The Blessed Virgin. Anna. Lucia. Beatrice. bay 
Eve. Rachel, Sarah, Judith, Rebecca, Ruth, and other a 
Hebrew women. Gabriel. Saint John the Baptist. Au- 
gustine. Francis. Benedict. Adam. Peter. John. Moses. 
The celestial multitudes. The heavenly choirs. The em- 
inently happy exalted to the Empyrean. The Rose of the | 
Blessed. iz 


A A 





FREELY the Sage contemplative, though rapt 
In musings high, a teacher’s part assumed, 
Wherein he thus his sacred words resumed : 

“She, there, at Mary’s feet, in beauty lapped, ss 
The wound both made and pierced which Mary — 

sought, 
And to which, closed, she perfumed ointments 
brought. pars 

Within that order which the third tier makes . ‘y 
See Rachel seated, than the others lower, ae. 
With Beatrice; and yet below are more. a 


Canto XXXII. 467 
ey The two Dispensations. 

“Sarah, Rebecca, Judith, she who wakes 10 
-Remembrance of the Singer of her line, 
eevee. for his faults, sung: ‘Show me mercy 
q thine !’ 

These thou dost see from seat to seat descend 

_ Down in gradation, as, with name of each, 

_ I lead thee down the Rose’s leafy reach. 

And, from the seventh seat downward, wend, 

_* As from above, the Hebrew women, so 

_ The Rose’s leaves dividing as they go; 


“For these are a partition-wall whereby 19 
_ The date of Christ the Faith in severed sides. 
‘Upon this side where every petal high 

Its happy inmate hath, sit souls elate 

| Who faith in Christ had ere his era’s date; 
‘Upon the other, where the eye doth meet 

_ With vacant thrones the semicircles hold, 
















a 


“ And, as, in this part, doth the glorious seat 2 
_ The Lady of Heaven hath, and those below, 

_ This great division’s limit plainly show, 

So doth, on the other opposite, that of John 

| Of desert fame, and martyrdom, and Hell, 

| Wherein he for two years confined did dwell. 
And, under him, such severance carry on 
Francis, and Benedict, and Augustine, 

And down t’wards us the line to come is seen. 


468 | Paradiso. 


The Infant Soul. 








“ And note the ways divine high Providence hath, 37 _ 
For shall the Faith’s two sides fill equal space 
In this blest garden of celestial grace. ; 

And know that downward from that rank whose | 

path 
Midway across the two divisions lies, 
Their bliss doth not from their own merit rise; 

But from another’s, ’neath conditions fixed, 

For these are spirits all set free ere power 
Of choice their own was their celestial dower. 


* Thou seest it in their little faces mixed, 46 
And childish voices, if thou seest them well, . 
And hearest their melody sweet the chorus swell. — 

Now dost thou doubt, and doubt thee silence brings, — 
But I will for thee the strong tie unbind 
While holds a prisoner thine inquiring mind, 

Within this realm chance ne’er its pathway wings, 
It here, no more than grief, can claim abode, 
Or be here mortal thirst or hunger sowed ; 


“ For here a changeless law all things controls, 55 __ 
And all that thou beholdest doth here sit 
Adjusted close as rings to fingers fit. 

And therefore do these little hastening souls 
Not without cause in this true life possess 
Degrees of excellence, more some, and some less, — 

The King, by means of whom this realm doth rest 
In love so great, in joy so absolute, 

That those perfections will nor mind dispute, 





Canto XXXII. 469 


The various Gifts of God. 















“Hath at his pleasure variously here blest 64 
_ Each soul created in his joyous sight ; 

_ The effect attests the glory of his might. 

And to this end doth Holy Writ prepare 

_ An instance clear, where we of those twins read 
Who in their mother gave their anger speed. 
And so may rule the color of the hair, 

_ And make decision as to who shall wear 

The loftiest light created souls may bear. 


“Not, then, desert their deeds have shown the 

| grade 73 

Of each hath fixed, their gifts alone do this, 

The primal sharpening of their souls for bliss. 

_ ’T is true, availed that innocence pure, with aid 

Of faith their parents had, to save their souls 

__ In times remote the distant past enfolds ; 

_ And that, when took the later ages place, 

_ *[ was meet that should their innocence virtue 
seek, 

And be through circumcision rendered meek ; 


“ But after that had come the time of grace, 82 
Without the baptism perfect given of Christ 
Such innocence came not here. But now, where 

Christ 
Hath most resemblance, look thou in that face. 
It, by its exquisite brightness, thou wilt find 
Will soon inform thy keen, adoring mind, 
_ And this alone will help thee look on Christ.” 
Forthwith I saw so great a gladness poured 
From forms angelic in that height that soared, 


470 Paradiso. 





The Blessed Virgin. 





That whatsoever yet had met my gaze gr 
Did not me thrill with admiration such, 5 
Nor so near what I thought God might be touch, | 

And he who once above her showered his rays, . 
Spread now, in homage forth, his wings, and sang t: 
“ Hail, Mary, full of grace!” whereto there rang — 

Responses forth from all the sacred host, 4 
And seemed each soul possessed of sight more i 

clear 
As went the anthem round from tier to tier. 


“O holy Father, who dost leave thy post, 100 
Thy place of honor by decree divine, : 
And dost endure this lower station mine, 

Say who the Angel is, that with such joy 
Into the eyes is looking of our Queen, 
Enamored so that fiery seems his sheen?” 

Thus I again the knowledge would employ 
Of him who beauty caught from Mary far 
As from the sun draws light the morning star. 


And he to me: “Such grace and dignity calm 109 ~ 
As may in Spirit or in Angel be, ; 
All is in him; and thus we would him see, 

For he that messenger is who bore the palm 
Down unto Mary when God’s Son decreed 
That he for us upon the cross would bleed. 

But, as we go, give me thy heedful eyes ; 
The great patricians thou shalt see of this . 
Most just and merciful Empire throned in bliss, 








Canto XXXII. 471 


The Patriarchs and Apostles. 








* Those two who o’er the rest enraptured rise, 1:8 
Rejoiced to be Augusta near, two roots, 
As ’t were, are whence this Rose celestial shoots. 
_ He who upon her left so near is placed 
' The general parent is, through whose rash taste 
Mankind hath been by ills so many chased. 
_ Upon the right that ancient Father’s graced 
Of Holy Church, to whom Christ gave the keys 
Of all this flower, admitting to it these. 






“ And he who saw, ere death, the suffering days 127 
Allotted to the beauteous Bride, whom won 
The spear and nails and all on Calvary done, 

Beside him sits; and by the other rays 
That leader under whom the manna-fed, 
Stiff-necked, ingrate, and fickle tribes were led. 

To Peter opposite, see’st thou Anna, face 
So happy bearing for her daughter’s guise, 
While she Hosanna sings ne’er move her eyes. 


“‘ And, opposite to the sire of all the race, 136 
Lucia sits, she who thy Lady sent 
When thou thy brows o’er ruin’s precipice bent. 

But, since soon fades the mighty vision’s glow, 
Desist we here (a tailor good will shape 
According to his cloth the coat or cape) ; 

And t’wards that Primal Love our gaze bestow, 
That, seeing Him, thou may’st His lustre scale 
As far as sight may unto thee avail. 


472 - Paradiso. 





Aspiration. 





“ But now lest, while thy wings assail the air, 145 
Advance defeat becomes, and progress vain, 

’T is meet that prayer should grace for thee ob- 
tain, . 

Grace from that one who can thy soul prepare ; 
And do thou, then, me follow, with thy mind 
And heart unto my purpose well-inclined.” 

And spoke those honied accents then this prayer. 


NOTES TO THE THIRTY-SECOND CANTO. 


6. “ She... at Mary’s feet.” Eve. 

11. “She who wakes.” Ruth, the ancestress of David. 

12. “ Mercy.” “ Have mercy upon me, O God, according 
to thy loving kindness.” Psalm li. 1. 

22, 25. “ Upon this side .. . upon the other.” It is obsery- 
able that the Rose is equally divided between the blest of the 
two Dispensations, that of the pre-Christian age, and that of 
the post-Christian age. In De AVonarchia, iii. 3, Dante argues 
that “those who have believed in Christ, whether to come, 
or present, or as having already suffered, and who from their 
faith have hoped, and from their hope have kindled into love, 
will, burning with love, be made co-heirs with Him.” 

31. “On the other opposite... Fohn.” Saint John the 
Baptist, classed among the saints of the Old Dispensation, 
but, with appropriateness, placed on the boundary line. A 
member of the Holy Family, the Elijah of the New Testa- 
ment, he is worthily made prominent. He suffered martyr- 
dom “two years” before the Resurrection, and during that 
term of time was in the Limbo, the Border-Land of the 
Fathers. 

40, 41, 46. “ Downward... midway... little faces.” 
The centre a glow of golden light from “little faces ” with 
their freshness and beauty, the blonde curls, the beaming 
eyes; on one side the multitudinous leaves, each a throne for 
some saint of the Old Dispensation; on the other the multi- 
tudinous leaves, partly filled by the saints of the New. 








Canto XXXII. 473 


Notes. 








Gis eNe 

SD 
NG SSS Dh 
ww Sp eS i 





68. “ Those twins.” Jacob and Esau. Genesis xxv. 22; 


_ Romans ix. 11. 


70. “ The color of the hair.” A suggestion seems in point 
_ here that “color” is of stress. Dante has just above referred 
to Jacob and Esau, in whose case the possession of hair con- 
ferred a promise. He now seems to say “ Even the color of 
the hair may indicate the destiny of the soul in the eternal 
world.” 

76-88. “ Innocence” three times repeated, and “ Christ” 
three times repeated; following, in both instances, the text 
of Dante. 

93, 94. “‘And he... spread now... his wings.’ Luke 
i. 28. 

119. “ Augusta.” A final hint of the stanch imperialism of 
the exiled Poet. 

127. “ And he who saw.” Saint John. 

131. “ That leader.” Moses. 

140. “A tailor good.” Unfavorable comment has been 
made upon Dante’s use of a sartoric simile: unjustly, as may 
be thought and as, we may suppose, Thomas Carlyle must 
have thought, and his admirers. should think. Dante has 
betrayed a fondness for it; twice before he has used it: in 
the Fifteenth Inferno, line 21: 


** As seeks a tailor old his needle’s eye,” 
and again in the Eleventh Paradiso: 
** Cloth for their hoods slight charges knew.” 


CANTO THIRTY-THIRD. 


ARGUMENT: 


Saint Bernard addresses to the Blessed Virgin a prayerin — 
behalf of Dante, that he may be allowed to look upon the 
Almighty Father. She grants his petition. Dante, with 
indescribable emotion, directs his eyes towards the ever- 3 
lasting Light of God, wherein he sees the triple orb of the 
Trinity and the figure of Christ Incarnate. The Poet — 
prays that his tongue may have power to declare but one 
sole particle of God’s glory to the future races of men. 

The Poem closes on the first Sunday after Easter. = 





PERSONS SPEAKING: Saint Bernard. Dante. 


PERSONS APPEARING: The immediate presence of God. The 
Trinity. The Incarnation. The Blessed Virgin, and the 
Angels and angelic creations, and holy men and women ~ 
attendant on her. Beatrice and other saints. The emi- ~ 
nently happy exalted to the Empyrean. The Rose of the — 
Blessed. < 


“OQ Vircin Mother, daughter of thy Son, 
Lowliest and loftiest of the race of man, 
The end determined of the eternal plan, 
*T is thou that hast for human nature won 
Nobility such that its Creator deigned 
To make Himself its creature so restrained. 
Within thy womb rekindled, shone the love 
By warmth whereof, in peace eternal sown, 
This flower hath thus to such wide affluence blown. 








Canto XXXII. ~ AFT 





A Noon-day Torch. A Fountain pure. 





“ A noon-day torch thou art to us above, 10 
Which Charity flames; below, for mortals’ cure, 
Thou art of Hope a living fountain pure. 

Lady, so great art thou in power divine 
That he who, seeking grace, thine aid foregoes, 
From wings in flying no advantage knows. 

Not only doth give aid benignity thine 
To him who speaks, but oft it doth forerun 
The prayer, and that we sought’s already done. 


“In thee compassion sweet, and mercy mild, 19 
And large munificence, are ; combined in thee 
We excellence each of every creature see. 

Now doth the man, who, from the Pit defiled, 
Hath all the universe to this height reviewed, 
And things immortal seen, so various-hued, 

_ Thee pray for gift so great of virtue’s power, 

That, helped,‘his eyes to lift him may have might 

Towards the last salvation’s loftiest height. 


“ And I, who never for my vision’s dower 28 
Burned more than I for his, I thee exhort, 
With all my prayers, and pray they come not 
short, 
That thou.wouldst from him every cloud dispel 
Of his mortality so, with prayers of thine, 
That he may see the Pleasure Chief Divine. 
And further this I pray thee, Queen, who well 
I know hast potent will, that thou insure, 
After such vision great, his heart keep pure! 


weg 
a 
‘ du 


476 Paradiso. 





Emotion of Dante. 





“ Him from all human promptings O protect! 37 

Lo Beatrice, and the rest, who clasped hands 
reach! 

O let us not in vain thine aid beseech!” 

Those eyes, of God beloved and elect, 
Upon the orator fastened, made us know 
How likes she prayers that with fond fervor glow; _ 

Unto the Light Eternal then they turned, | 
Whereon incredible ’t is e’er bent an eye 
So clear, from creature, in or earth or sky. 


And I, who to that end whereto I yearned 46 
Was now approaching, brought, as meet was, close 
To hope’s desire, and gave my soul repose. 

Bernard was beckoning to me, with a smile, 

That I should upward look; but he my mind 

Found all prepared without his gesture kind, 
For was my vision, made all pure €he while, 

Into the radiance entering, by degrees, 

Of that High Light whence Truth hath its decrees. 


Thenceforward what I saw o’erpassed our speech ; 55 
Speech yields to such a vision; its excess 
The memory quells; mind fails in such a press. 
And even as he who from a dream’s long reach 
Awakes ; the imprinted feeling bides; but all 
The rest’s dispelled whereto his sense was thrall ; 
So now am I; ’tis scarce to me revealed 
What then I saw; but through my heart distils 
The sense of sweet, thence born, in trickling rills. 





Canto XX XIIT. 477 


Abounding Grace. 








Thus in the sun’s thaw is the snow unsealed; 6 
Thus on the wind the fickle leaves flew wide 

- The Sibyl sent, who their return denied. 

_ O thou Eternal Beam, whose height so far 

Our mortal thought transcends, lend me again 

A little gleam of that which rapt me then, 

_ And make my tongue so sound on music’s bar 

That of thy glory but a sparkle sole 

: May on its notes to future ages roll, © 





For thereby shall my tongue thy victory sound, 73 
In tones distinct more than my memory gives, 
In ardor pure wherein such vision lives! 

Such keenness in the living fire I found, 

That had from it mine eyes been turned, quite 
lost, 
I had in dire bewilderment’s waves been tost. 

And I recall that this me made more bold 
To bear this stress; wherefore I fixed my gaze 
Upon the Glory of those Infinite Rays. 


O grace abounding, which me so controlled 82 
To join the Light Eternal I presumed, 
So that my vision I therein consumed ! 
I saw that in its depths fond love prepares 
A volume wherein all resides, which else 
The universe holds in leaves each tempest pelts ; 
Substance, and accident, methods, too, of theirs 
I saw compounded, blended, so the sight 
That came to me was one integral light. 


478 Paradiso. 





Dante in Adoration. 





I think I saw how was this mighty knot gt 
All-comprehensive ; for, when this I say, 
I feel that joy doth in my memory play; 
Whereof one moment’s lethargy hath forgot 
More than have five and twenty centuries dimmed 
The scene wherein dazed Ocean Argo skimmed. 
With head intent, and breath and motion stilled, 
I wondering gazed, and, as I gazed, the more 
Did all my mind in admiration soar. 


The mind becomes, in that light’s presence, filled 100 

With adoration, such that its intent 

Can ne’er from contemplation such be bent; 
For all the good which will for object claims 

Is here combined, and, out of its demesne, 

The thing imperfect doth here perfect reign. 
And feebler falls my failing speech, which aims 

To tell of what I yet recall, than would 

Soft babyhood’s talk through milk not understood. 


Not because more than one sole semblance rayed 109 
In that keen, living light whereon I gazed, 
For it, as ever, with one radiance blazed ; 

But through my sight, which strengthened was, and 
. stayed, 
By constant gazing, one appearance sole F 
Changed as I changed, as though ’neath mycon- 

trol. 

In that subsistence clear and lofty came 
Three circles, diverse each in hue, but planned 
With one dimension ; beautiful they, and grand. 








Canto XXXITI. 479 


The beatific Vision. 












The second showed the first’s reflected flame, 8 
_ As rainbow might ray rainbow, and the third 
Seemed fire, by breath from both the others 
; stirred. 
O how doth this conception all speech quell 
Beneath its mighty import! And e’en thought 
How less than little, near such wonders brought! 
y Light Eternal, thou that dost sole dwell 

Within thyself, and, unto thyself known, 
Dost love and smiles to thyself give and own, 


| That circle which, in my conception, drew 127 
Within thee light reflected, when mine eyes 
Had somewhat rested on its heavenly guise, 

Within itself, of its own proper hue, 

To me seemed painted with our effigy ; thence 
I on it pored with interest most intense! 
As one who, versed in geometric lore, 
Would square the circle, but whose mind finds 
nought, 
Long pondering, of the principle vainly sought, 


F’en so did I survey this splendor o’er ; 136 

I would divine how found the image place 

The round within, and their relations trace ; 
And had my wings assailed unyielding bars 

Were it not then that came my mind upon 

A flash of levin wherein my wish was won. 
Came failure, then, which towering fancy mars ; 

But yet the will rolled onward, like a wheel 

In even motion which that love doth feel 


480 


Paradiso. 





Source of all Power and Glory. 





Which moves the sun in heaven and all the stars. 145 


NOTES TO THE THIRTY-THIRD CANTO. 


Ty: 6° 


Of these classic stanzas an imperfect translation is at- 


tempted : 


8. “Zn 


Virgin Mother.” 


“*O gloriosa virginum, 
Sublima inter sidera, 
Qui te creavit, parvulum 
Lactante nutris ubere! 


** Quod Heva tristis abstulit 
Tu reddis almo germine; 
Intrent ut astra flebiles 
Ceeli recludis cardines! ” 


O Glory of the Virgin Choir, 

Sublime amidst the starry skies, 

Thy milk thine own Creating Sire 
Sustained, a Babe whom Angels prize. 


What hapless Eve had taken, thou 

Through thy blest womb, restorest, glad 
To help the grieved whom burdens bow, 
And ope heaven’s doors to pleadings sad. 


peace eternal.” That is, in the Empyrean, the 


motionless sphere. 
66. “ The Sibyl.” 


“cc 


When, then, the Cumzan town thou shalt approach, 
The Lakes divine, and, with its voiceless woods, 
Avernus, her, the prophet-priestess wild, 
Thou shalt behold, who, ’neath a sombre rock, 
Sings Fates, and unto leaves her notes and names 
Commits, in order due. And these the maid 
Aside within her cave lays by, where safe 
And undisturbed they stay. But when the door, 
Upon its hinges turned, the wind admits, 
And fly the fragile leaves throughout the cave, 
No care hath she their places to restore, 
And join the scattered writings verse to verse.” 

The Prophecy of Helenus, 7hird Atneid, 441. 












FE on THE 
\ (SeiVERsITY 
Canto XX) ZALIFORNY: 


Notes. 








77. “Had mine eyes been turned.” “ And Jesus said unto 
him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and look- 
- ing back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luzeke ix. 62. 

95. “ Five and twenty centuries.” It will be observed that, 
_ among the numerous constructions of this passage, the present 
translation follows that of Lombardi. 
; 





96. “ All the good which will for object claims.” “Since 
every art and every kind of knowledge, as well as all the 
actions and all the deliberations of men, constantly aim at 
_ something which they call good, good in general may be 
_ justly defined, that which all desire.” Aristotle, Zzhics, i. 1. 
115. “ Subsistence.” “ What exists by itself, and not in 

another, is called subsistence.” Saint Thomas of Aquin, 

Summa, i. 29. 2. 

116. “ Three circles.” The Trinity. 

143. “ Wheel.” A globe, one of the heavenly bodies. This 
use of the word “ruota” is Dantean. 

144. “ Motion.” The motion of the heavenly bodies. In 
these words, “wheel” and “motion,” it is conceived there 

’ lies great significance. The Poet’s imagination fails. It is 
consigned to a confessed defeat. His w#// remains; and, 
like a celestial orb, it rolls onward with that evenness of 
motion which the Almighty has assigned to the heavenly 
bodies. The imagination and the will fitly represent the 
contemplative nature. In comparison therewith the person- 
ality of Dante is unimportant. It is believed that this read- 
ing and this construction are new. 

With very great justice, as we must all think, Cardinal 
Manning has said, in a letter to Dr. Bowden, translator of 
Hettinger’s Commentary on Dante, that no uninspired hand 
has ever written thoughts so high, in words so burning and 
so resplendent, as the last Canto of the present Poem. 








GENERAL INDEX. 





Tue abbreviations used are: Inf., Jaferno; Pur., Purgatorio; Para., 
Paradiso ; init., beginning ; fin., end; n., note; q. v., which see; et seq., 


and following. 


Passim means everywhere; et aliubi, and elsewhere ; bis, twice; ter, 


thrice. 


Usually, where a name or subject is indexed as in the text, mention will 


not be made of the name or subject to be found in the notes. 


Names and 


subjects found exclusively in the notes are indexed. 





Asati, Bocca degli. Inf. xxxii.106; 
Buoso degli. Inf. xxv. 35, 140; 
Neri Abati. Inf. xxvi. 8, and n. 

Abbagliato. Inf. xxix. 132. 

Abbey of San Benedetto. 


100. 
Abbey, Westminster. Inf. xii. n. 
Abbot Joachim. Para. xii. 140. 
Abel. Inf. iv. 56. 

Aboriginal nomenclature. Para. vi. 


n. 

Abraham. Inf. iv. 58. 

Absalom. Inf. xxviii. 137. 

Abydos. Pur. xxviii. 74. 

Accorso, Francis of (Accrusius). 
Inf. xv. 110. 

Achan. Pur. xx. 109. 

Achates. Inf. xxviii. n. 

Acheron. Inf. iii. 78; xiv. 116. Pur. 
ii. 105, et aliubi. 

Achilles. Inf. v. 65; xii. 71; xxvi. 
62; xxxi. 4. Pur. ix. 343 xxi. 92. 
Para. vi. n, et aliubi. 

Acone. Para. xvi. 65. - 

Acquacheta (Stillwater). 


Inf. xvi. 


Inf. xvi. 


97: 

Acquasparta, Cardinal. Para. xii. 
124, et aliubi. 

Acre. Inf. xxvii. 89, et aliubi. 

Active, and contemplative, life. Pur. 
XXVil. nN. 

Adalagia. Para. ix. 96. 

Adam. Inf. iii. 115; iv. 55. Pur. 
ix. 10; Xi. 443 xxix. 863 Xxxil. 37; 
Xxxili. 62. Para. vii. 263 xiii. 37, 





III3 XXvi. 83, 91, 100; xxxii. 122, 


136. 

Adam of Brescia. Inf. xxx. 61, 104. 

Addison. Pur. xxi. n. 

Adige. Inf. xii. 5. Pur. xvi. 115. 

Adimari, family. Inf. xvi. n. 

Adrastus. Inf. xiv. n. Pur, xii. n. 

Adrian [V. Pur. xix. 99. 

fEacus. Inf. xxvi. n. 

fEgean Sea. Inf. xxi. n. 

fEgidius. Para. xi. 83. 

fEgina. Inf. xxix. 59. 

fEnaria. Inf. xxxi. n. 

fEneas. Inf. ii. 323 iv. 1223 xxvi. 
93; Pur. xviii. 137. Para. vi. 33 
XV. 27, et aliubi. ¥ 

fEneid, The. Inf. xx. 113; Pur. 
Xxi. 97, et passim. 

fEolus. Pur. xxviii. 21. 

fEsop. Inf. xxiii. 4. 

fEthiop. Pur. xxvi. 21. Para. xix. 


109. 
Ethiopia. Inf xxiv. 89. 
fEthiopians. Inf. xxxiv. 44. 
Etna. Inf. xiv. 56. Para. viii. 67. 
Africanus, Scipio. Pur. xxix. 116. 
Agamemnon. Para. v. 69, et aliubi. 
Agapetus. Para. vi. 16. 
Agatho. Pur. xxii. 107. 
Ages of Faith. Inf. xxvii. n. 
Age of gold. Inf. xix. n. 
xxi. Pur. xxii. fin. 
Ages of gold, bronze, iron, etc. Inf. 


Para. 


xiv. n. , 
Aglaia. Inf. xxvi. n. 


484 


General Index. ("s 





ANTI 





AGLA 

Aglauros. Pur. xiv. 139. 
Agnello Brunelleschi, Inf. xxv. 68. 
Agobbio or Gubbio. Pur. xi. 80. | 
Agostino (Franciscan). Para. xil. 

130. 

uglione. Para. xvi. 56. 

yt acid King. Pur. xvii. 28. 


Ahitophel. Inf. xxviii. 137. 
Ajax, the swift. Pur. xi. n. 


Ajax, son of Telamon. Pur. xii. n. 
Alagia. Pur. xix. 142. 
Alagna, or Anagni. Pur. xx. 86. 


Para, xxx. 148. 


Alardo. Inf. xxviii. 18, 
Alba Longa. Para. vi. 37. 
Alberic. Inf, iii. n., et aliubi. 


Alberichi, family. Para. xvi. 89. 

Alberigo. Inf. xxxiii. 118. 

Albert of Austria. Pur. 
Para. xix. 115 

Albert of Sientia. Inf. xxix. r10. 

Alberti, Alessandro and Napoleone. 
Inf. xxxii. 55. 

Alberto degli Alberti. Inf. XXXii. 57. 

Alberto della Scala. Pur. xviii. 121. 


vi. 97. 


Albertus Magnus. Inf. xiv. n. 
Para. x. 98. 

Alchemists, Inf. xxix. 

Alcides. Para. ix. 101, and see 
Hercules (hero). 

Alemzon. Pur. xii. 50. Para. iv. 
103. 

Alcmena. Inf. xvii. n. 


eg oi Guglielmo. Pur. 

Aidobrandi, Tegghiaio. Inf. xvi. 41. 

Alecto. Inf. ix. 47. 

Alessandria. Pur. vii. 135. 

Alessandro, Count of Romena. Inf. 
XXX. 77. 

Alessandro degli Alberti. Inf. xxxii. 

Inf, xviii. 122. 
Inf. xii. 107. 
Inf. xiv. 31, 


55. 

Alessio Interminei. 
Alexander of Phere. 
Alexander the Great. 

et aliubi. 

Alfonso of Aragon. Pur. vii. 116. 
Alfonso of Majorca. Para. xix. 137. 
Alfonso of Spain. Para. xix. 125. 


Alfred the Great. Para. x. n. bis. 

Ali, disciple of Mahomet. Inf. 
XXVil. 32. 

Alichino, ‘demon. Inf. xxi. 118; 
XXil. 112. 


niepien, family. Para. xv. 138, et 

aliubi 

Alighieri il Bello (Dante’s grand- 
uncle). Inf. xxix. n, 

Alighieri del Bello ag of Alighieri 
il Bello). Inf. xxix. 





Alighieri, Pietro (commuentatcay 
Inf. xxv. n. 

Aloius. Inf. xxxi. n. 

Alps. Inf. xx. 62. 

* xxxiil. 111, et aliubi. 

Altaforte. Inf, XxiX. 29. 

Alverna. Para, xi. 105, 

Amata, mother of Lavinia. 
Xvil. 35. 

Ambrose, St. Inf. xii, n. Pur. ix. n. 

AN nomenclature, Para. vi. 


Pur. xvii. 15 


Pur. 


Amide, family. Para. xvi. 136, et 
aliubi. 
Ampére (critic). Inf. v. n., et aliubi. 


fneteteees Inf. xx. 34. Pur. xii. 
Para. iv. n. 

Anplaen: Inf. xxxii. 11. 

Ane serpent. Inf. xxiv. 

Ampeg Para. vi. 67. 

Anagni or Alagni. Pur. xx. 86, 


Ananias. Pur. xx. 112.> Para. 
12, 
Anarchy, Pur. vi. n. 
Anastagi, family. Pur. xiv. 107. 
Anastasius I., emperor. Inf. xi, n. 


Anastasius IT. +, pope. . xi. 8. 

Anaxagoras. Inf. iv. 

Anchises. Inf. i hy eras, xviii, 
197. Para, XV. 253 33m. 4a ee 


iubi. 
Asics (birthplace of Virgil). Pur. 
xviii, 83, andn 

Andrea del Sarto. Inf. vi. n. 
Androgeos. Inf. xvii. n. 
Andromanche. Inf. xxx. n. 
Angelo, Michael. Inf. vi. n. as 
a tie St., Castle of. Inf. xviii. 


Angels, celestial creations. Para. 
XXVill., xxix., xxxi. 

Angels, rebel. Para. xix. 50. 

Angels, described by Dante. Inf. ~ 
xiv. n., et aliubi Pie 

Angelus, morning. Para, x. fin. and 
n.; evening. Dur, Vili. 1. # 

Sus da Cagnano, 


Auna, St., mother of the Blessed 
Virgin. Para. xxxii. 133. 
Annas. Inf. xxiii. 121. 


Anselm, St, Para. xii. 137. 
Anselmuccio. Inf. xxxiil. 50. 
Antzus. 


Inf. xxxi. 100, 113, 139. 
Antandros. Para. vi. 67. 
Antenora. Inf. xxxii. 88. 
Antenori (Paduans). Pur. v. 75. 
Anthony, St. Para. xxix. 124. 
Antigone. Pur. xxii. r10. 








Antoninus, Pius. 
ons the Illustrious. Inf. xix. 


r oa ge Inf. xvi. 96; 


: 
q 
4 


XX. 39 
Arles. 


General Index. 


485 





ANTO 


AUSO 





Pur. ii. n. 


Riniptoa. Pur, xxii, 106. 
xx. 657; 
xxvii. 29. Pur. v. 963 xiv. 31; 

g2; xxx. 86. Para. xxi. 106, 

open Inf. xix. 108. Pur. 
Xxix. 10 

Apollo. ur. ex, 332), Para: 1.3133 

i. 83 xvii. init., et aliubi. 

Apostles. Pur. xxii. 78. 

Apples, sorb. Inf. xv. n. 

Aptitudes for avocations, to be con- 
sidered. Para. viii. fin. 

Apulia. Inf. xxviii.9. Pur. v. 69; 
vii. 126. Para. vpii. 61. 

Apulians. Inf. xxviii. 17 

Aquarius, sign of the Zodiac. 
Xxiv. 2. 

Aquilon. Pur. iv. 60; xxxii. 99. 

Aquinas, see Thomas, St., of Aquin. 

Arabians. Para. vi. 49. 

Arachne. Inf. xvii. 18. Pur. xii. 43. 

Aragon. Pur, iii. 116. 

Aragonese. Para. xix. 137. 

Arbia. Inf. x. 86. 

Arca, family. Para. xvi. 92. 

Arcas (The Little Bear). 
xxxi. 33. And see Bears. 

Archangels, celestial _ creations. 
Para. i. n3; xxvili. 1253; xxix. 

Archiano. Pur. v. 95, 125. 

Architecture, Gothic. Pur. x. n. 

Ardiughi, family. Para. xvi. 93. 

Arethusa. Inf. xxv. 97. 

Aretine, Benincasa. Pur. vi. 13. 

Aretine, Griffolino. Inf. xxix. 109; 
XXX. 31. 

Aretines. Inf. xxii. 5. Pur. xiv. 46. 
Arezzo. Inf. xxii. n.; xxix. 109. 
Pur. xiv. n. 
Argenti, Philippo. Inf. viii. 61. 

Argia. Pur. xxii. ro. 

Argo. Pur. viii. n.; xxxili. 96. 
aaa Para. ii. 16; xxxiii. 96. 
Argus. Pur. xxix. 95; xxxii. 65. 
a Inf. xii. 20. Para. xiii. 


Inf. 


Para. 


Aries, sign of the Zodiac. Pur. ix. 
3 Xxxil. 53. Para. i. 403 xxviii. 


117. 
Ariosto. Inf. xii. n., et aliubi. 
Aristzus. Para. i. 1. 
Aristotle. Inf. iv. 131. Pur. iii. 43. 


Para. viii. 120 ; xxvi. 38, et aliubi. 
Arius. Para. xiii. 127. 
Ark, the Holy. Pur. x. 56. Para. 


Inf. ix. 112. 





oeailiary sphere. Para. i. 37, and 
Bastien. Count. Pur. vii. n. 
Arno. Inf, xiii, 1463 xv. 1133 xxiii. 
953 Xxx. 65; xxxiii. 83. Pur. v. 
122, 125; Xiv. 17, 24, 51. Para. 
x1. 106. 
Arnauld, Daniel. 
Arrigo, Fifanti. Inf. vi. 80. 
Arrigo, Mainardi, Pur. xiv. 118. 
Arrigucci, family. Para. xvi. 108. 
Art. Inf. xvii. Para. x. init. 


Arthur, King. Inf. xxxii- 62. 
Aruns. Inf. xx. 46, 


Pur. xxvi. 115, 


Ascanius. Para. viii. n. 
Ascension. Inf. xii. init. Apt x. 
init. 


Ascesi, or Assisi. Para. xi. 53. 
Asceticism. Para. 1D. 


Asciano. Inf. xxix. 131. 
Asdente. Inf, xx, 118. 
Asopus. - Par. xvill. gr. 


Assyrians. Pur. xii. 58. 

Astrology, Dante’s idea of, Para. i. 
403 vil. fin.; viii. fin. ; ix. 33; x. 
init. 3 xiii. 653 Xvii. 763 XXil. 1125 
XXV. 70; XXxvi. 128. And see Pur. 
i, mn; xvi. 81; xX. 13. 

Astronomy. Inf. i. 38. Pur. i. 245 

_ Xv. init. 3 xvi. 81 5 Xxv. init. ; Xxvi. 
init. ; ; xxvii. init. ; xxix. init. ; ; XXX. 
init. ; XXxil. 52-60} XXXill. 103. 
Para. i. 37, et seq. And see As- 
trology, Planetary Influence, and 
Stars. 


Athamas. Inf. xxx. 4. 
Athene. Pur. xv. n. 
Athens. Inf. xii. r7. Pur. vi. 1393 


xv. 98. Para. xvii. 46. 

Atropos. Inf. xxxiii. 126. ; 

Attila. Inf. x1. n.3; xii, 1343 Xili, 
149, et aliubi. 

Attraction of gravitation. Inf. xxxiii. 
Ij XXXiv. III. 

Augusta. Para. xxxii. 119. 

Augustine, St. Inf. iii. n.; xxii. n. 
Pur. xill. n.3 Xv. n. Para. iv. 0.5 
X. 1203 XXxii. 35, et aliubi. 

Augustus. Para. xxx. 136. 

Augustus, Cesar. Inf. 1.71. Pur. 
xxix. 116. Para, vi. 733 XXiv. n., 
et aliubi. 

Augustus (Frederic IT.). Inf. xiii. 68. 
(Henry of Luxemburg). Inf. xxx. 
36. Para. xxx. 36. 

Aulis. Inf. xx. 111. 

Aurora. Pur. ii. 8; ix. 1. Para. 


Ausonia. Para. viii. 61. 


486 


General Index. Ve 





BIAG 





AUST 
Auster. Pur. xxxii. 99. 
Austria. Inf. xxxii. 26. 


Avaricious, The. Inf. vii. Pur. 
SIX. . KK.5 KK 

Aventine, Mount. Inf. xvii. n. 3 xxv. 
26. 

Averrhoés. Inf. iv. 144. 

Avicenna. Inf. iv. 143. 

Avignon. Inf. xix. n. Pur. xxxii. n. 

Avitus, Saint. Inf. xiv. n. 

Avocations, aptitudes ae to be con- 
sidered. Para. viii. 

Azzo degli Ubaldini. Pur. xiv. 105. 

Azzolino, or Ezzolino. Inf. xii. 110. 
Para. ix. 29. 


Azzone II]. of Este. Pur. v. 77. 


Babylon. Para. xxiii. 135. 

Bacchantes. Pur. xviii. 92. 

Bacchiglione. Inf. xv. 113. Para. 
1X. 47- 

Bacchus. Inf. xx. 59. Pur. xviii. 


93. Para. xiii. 25, et aliubi. 
Bacon, Lord. Inf. v. n. Para. vi. 
n., et aliubi. 
Bagnacavallo. 
Bagnoregio. 
Bagrada. 
Balbo (biographer). 
aliubi. 
Baldo d’ Aguglione. 
50, 115, and notes. 
Balearic Islands. Inf. xvii. n. ; xix. n. 
Baliol, John. Para. xix. 122, and n. 
Baptist; St. John the. Inf. xiii. 143; 
xxx. 74. Pur, xxii. 152. Para. 
XVi. 25, 473 XVill. 134; Xxxii. 31. 
ree of Florence. Para. xv. 


Pur. xiv. 115. 
Para. xii. 128. 
Inf. xxxi. n. 
Inf. i. n., et 


Para. xvi. 26, 


Barbagia of Sardinia. Pur. xxiii. 94. 

sg Northern. Para. xxxi. 

Barbariccta, bets Inf. xxi. 
Xxii. 29, 59, 

gr aies, F peaciiok I. Pur. xviii. 


1203 


Barbaian (theologian). Inf. xxviii. n. 

Bari. Para. viii. 62. 

Barlow (critic). Inf, xii. n., et aliubi. 

Barrators. Inf. xxi. 

Bartollomeo della Scala. Para. xvii. 
71, et atin 

Barucci, fami Para. xvi. 104. 

Bassano. ine vi vi. n. 

Beachy (Bice, Beatrice). Para. vii. 
14, and n. 

Bears, constellation of ses Pur. iv. 
65. Para. ii. 9; xiii. 7; xxxi. 32. 
And see Charles’s Wain. 

Beatrice. Inf. ii. 70, 103; ix. 8; x. 





1313 xii. 88; xv. go. Pur, i. 535 
V1. 473 XV. 773 Xvili. 48, 7335 xxiii, 
128; xxvii. 36, 53, 136; XXX. 733 
xxxi. 80, 107, 114, 1333 XXxii. 36, 
85, 1063 xxxili. 4, 124. Para. i, 
46, 653 ii. 223 ill. 12734 Iv. 13, 1393 
v. 16, 85, 1225 vil. 16; ix. 163 x, 
37, 52, 60; xi. 23 xiv. & 79; xv. 
703 XV1. 13; Xvil. 5, 13-303 XViil, 
17, 53 3 XX1. 633 XXI1. 1253 Xxiil. 34, 
763 XXIV. 16, 22, 555 XXv. 28, 1373 
xxvi. 763 xxvii. 37s 1025 pes i 
XXX. 14, 1283 Xxxi. 59, 66, 76 ree 
9; Xxxiii. 38; and in Para, (except 
the last three cantos passim. 

Beatrice, daughter of Erzalin da Ro- 
mano. Pur. vi. 74, n. 

ee Marchioness of Este. Pur. 
viii. 

Bentrics (oaks of the brother of St. 
Louis). Pur. vii. 128, and n. 

Beatrice (wife of the. ‘Emperor Bar- 
barossa). Pur. xviii. 119. 

Beccaria, Abbot of. Inf. xxxii. 


119. 
Beda (the Venerable Bede). Para. 


Xo 4% 

Beelzebub. Inf. xxxiv. 127. 
Belacqua. Pur. iv. 123. 
Belisarius. Para. vi. 25. 
Bellarmine. Inf. xix. n. 
Bellincione, beat Inf. xvi. n. Para. 

XV. 112} XV 


Bello, Geri del, 
Belus, King of Tyre. Para. ix. 97. 
And see Dido. q 
Benacus (Lago di Garda). Inf. xx. 

63, 74 


77- 
Benedetto, San, Abbey of, » Inf. xvi. 


be xxix. 27. 


Benedict XIL., Pope. Para. xiv. n. 
gfe 2 St. Para. xxii. 40; XXXiL 


Benevento: Inf. ix. n.j xvi, n.5 
xxvilit. n. Pur. iii. 128. 

Benincasa of Arezzo. Pur. vi, 13. 

Benvenuto. Inf. xx. n., et aliubi. 


Berenger, Raymond. Para. Vi. 134. 
Bergamese. Inf. xx. 71. 

Berkeley, Bishop. Inf. xiv. n. 
sina: first Franciscan. Para. xi. 


Berard; St. 
XXXii. 1. 
Bern«rdin di Fosco. 
Bernardone, Peter. 
Berti, Bellincione. 

Xvi. 99. 
Bertrand de Born. Inf. xxviii. 13 
Biagioli (critic). Inf. xii. n., et 


Para. xxXi. 102, 1393 


Pur. xiv. 101. 
Para. xi. 
Para, xv. tis 


ere Woe CRO. VU H e is 


ome oe 


Io tr me ene ewer’ 


Se te ket a el eee ee ee ore re 








General Index. 


487 





BIAN 


BUTI 





Bianchi, white faction. Inf. iii. n. ; 
vi. P33 XXiv. 150; XXxii. 63, et 
aliubi. 

Bias and Prejudice. Para. xiii. 120. 

Bible, inspired to what extent. Para. 


XX. 40. 

Bice (Beatrice). Para. vii. 14, and 
n. And see Beatrice. 

Billi, or Pigli, family. Para. xvi. 103. 

Bindi, abbreviation of Aldobrandi. 
Para. xxix. 103. 

Bisenzio. Inf. xxxii. 56. 

Bismantova. Pur. iv. 26. : 

Black faction. Inf. vi. 65; xxiv. 
150, et aliubi. 

Black Guelphs. Inf. iv. n. 

Blackstone (jurist). Inf. xix. n. 

Blazer (demon). Inf. xxi. n. 

Blow, Miss (critic). Pur. xxx. n. 

Bocca degli Abati. Inf. xxii. 106, et 
aliubi. 

Boccaccio (novelist), Inf. xvi. n. 

Body, ghost. Inf. passim. 

Body, glorified. Para. xiv., XXv., 

; glorified earthly body’ of the 

Renntvectioti, Inf. vi. 94}; x. 10. 
Para. xiv. 43; XXV. 913 XXX. 45. 

Body, spiritual. Pur. xxv. 82-108. 
cay Xlv. 393; XVii. 363 xxv. 92; 


XXX. 45. 
Boéthius, Severinus. Pur. xv. n. 
Para. x. 125. 
est Pur. vii. 98. Para. xix. 


Bolg (Evil-Pits). Inf. xviii. to 

Saloons. Inf. xviii. n. bis; xxiii. 
1423; xxviii. n. Pur. xiv. 100, et 
aliubi. 

Bolognese. Inf. xxiii. 103. 

Bolognese, Franco. Pur. xi. 88. 

Bolsena. Pur. xxiv. 24. 

Bonatti, Guido. Inf, xx. 118. 

Bonaventura, St. Para. xii. 127. 

Boniface, Archbishop of Ravenna. 
Pur. xxiv. 29. 

Boniface, Count of Tuscany. Para. 
XXvili. n. 


Boniface VIII. Inf. iii. init. ; xviii. 
29, 1.3 XIX. 533 XXvii. 90, 85. 


Pur. viii, 131, and n. ; xx. 87; xxil. 
149} Xxiii. 44. Para. ix. 132 ; xii. 
90; Xv. fin. ; xvii. 50, 1343; xxvii. 
22; xxx. 148, et aliubi. 
Boniface of Signa. Para. xvi. 56. 
Bonturo de’ Dati. Inf. xxi. 41. 
Boreas. Para. xxviii. 80, et aliubi. 
Borgo (Borough) of F lorence. Para. 


XVI, 134. 
Born, Bertrand de. Inf. xxviii. 134. 





Borsiere, Guglielmo. Inf. xvi. 7o. 
Bostichi, family. Para. xvi. 93. 
Bottaio, "Martino. a xxi. n. 
Bottiger. Pur. x 
Bowden (theologian). Inf. xix. n 
Para. xxxiii. n. 
Brabant, Lady of. Pur. vi. 23. 
Bramante. Inf. xxxi. n. 
Branca d’ Oria. Inf. xxxiii. 137, 140. 
Branda, fountain of. Inf. xxx. 78. 
Brandenburg, Hugo of. Para. xvi. 
128, and n. 
Brandon, St. Inf. iii. n., et aliubi. 
Brass (bronze). Inf. xiv. n. 
Brennus. Par. vi. 
Brenta. Inf. xv. 7. 
Brescia. Inf. xx. 68. 
Bretinora. Pur. xiv. 112. 
Briaraus. Inf. xxxi. 68. Pur. xii. 28. 
Bridge of St. Angelo. Inf. xviii. 29. 


Par. ix. 27. 


Bridges. Para. xvii. 36; xxv. 92; 
XXX. 45- , 

Brigata. Inf. xxxiii. 89. 

Brissos, Brissus, Bryso, Bryson. 


Para. xiii. 125. 
Broken vows. 
the Para. 
Bronze (not brass). Inf. xiv. n. 
Browne, Sir Thomas. Inf. x. n., et 
aliubi. 
Browning, E. B. Pur. xxii. n. 
Bruges. Inf. xv. 4. aes xx. 46. 
Bruggia. Para. ix. 
Brundusium. Pur. oi. 27. 
Brunelleschi, Agnello. Inf. xxv. 68. 
Brunetto, Latini. Inf. xv. 30, 32, 
101, 
Brutus, Lucius Junius. Inf. iv. 127. 
Brutus, Decimus Junius. Inf. xxxiv. 


First five cantos of 


5. 
Brutus and Cassius. Para. vi. 74. 
Bujamonte, Giovanni. Inf. xvii. 73. 
Bulicame, hot springs of Viterbo. 

Inf. xiv. 79. 

Bunyan, Inf. iii., et aliubi. 
Buonagiunta. Pur. xxiv. 19, 20, 35, 

56. 

Bemnecnte di Montefeltro. Pur. v. 

88. 
ee Inf. xxviii. n. Para. 

xvi. 14 ‘ 
Siena ont; family. Para. xvi. 

6. 

Buoso da Duera. Inf. xxxii. 116. 

ayers degli Abati. Inf. xxv. 35, 

Shiono degli Donati. Inf. xxx. 44. 

Burns. Para. xiii. n. y 

Buti (commentator), Pur. xvi. n., 
et aliubi. 


488 


General Index. 





BUTL 


CAST 





ee (critic). Pur. vii. bis; xv. n. ; 
Para. i. n.; vii. n. bis, et aliubi. 
Butterfly (demon). Inf. xxi. n. 
Byron (c ritic). Inf. v. n. Para, i. 
n., et aliubi. 
Byzantium. See Constantinople. 


Caccia d* Asciano. Inf. xxix. 131. 


Cacciaguida. Para. xv. 20, 94, 135, 
145; Xvi. 293 xviii. 1, 28, 50, et 
aliubi. ae 

Caccianimico, Venedico. Inf. xviii. 
50. 

Cacus. Inf. xxv. 25. 

Cadiz. See Gades. 

Cadmus. Inf. xxv. 97; xxx. n. 

Cadsand. Inf. xv. 4. 

Cecilius. Pur. ii. n.3 xxii. 


Cznais (mas.); Czenis ae Inf. 
xx. n. 

Cesar. Inf. xiii. 65, 68. Pur. vi. 
92,114. Para. i. 29; vi. 103 xvi. 
59, et aliubi. 

Czsar, Julius. Inf. i, 70; iv. 1233 
xxvill. 98. Pur. xviii. 101; xxvi. 
77. Para. vi. 57; xi. 69; et aliubi. 

Czsar, Tiberius. Para. vi. 86. 

gene Angiolello da. Inf. xxviii. 


Crees. Para. ix. 49. 

Cagnazzo, demon. Inf. xxi. 119; 
xxii. 106. 

Cahors. Inf. xi. 50. 

Caiaphas. Inf. xxiii. 115. 


Cain. Pur. xiv. 132. 
Cain and his thorns (man in the 
moon). Inf. xx. 126. Para. ii. 51. 
Caina. Inf. v. 1073 xxxii. 58. 
Calahorra, Para. xii. 52. 
Calboli, family. Pur. xiv. 89, 
Calcabrina, demon. Inf. xxi. 
XXli. 133. 
Calchas. Inf. xx. 110. 
Calfucci, family. Para. xvi. 106. 
Calixtus I. Para. xxvii. 44. 
Calliope. Pur. i.9. Para. xviii. 82, 
et aliubi. 

Callirhoé. Inf. xvii. n. 
Callisto. Pur, xxv. 131. 
32. And see Bear. 
Camaldoli. Pur. v. 96. Para. xxxi. 

32. And see Bear. 
Camiccion de’ Pazzi. Inf. xxxii. 68. 
Camilla. Inf. i. 107; iv. 104. 
Camillus. Para. vi. 44, and n, 
Camillus, American. Para. vi. n. 
Cammino, or Camino, family. Pur. 
Xvi. 124, 133, 138. 
Cammino, or Camino, Ricardo da. 
Para. ix. 50. 


118; 


Para. xxxi. 





Camonica, Val. 
Campagnatico. 
peseac ae 


Inf. xx. 65. 
Pur. xi. 66. 
Inf. xii, n. Pur. v. 
Caniph Para. xvi. 50. 
Canavese. Pur. vii. 136. 
Cancellieri, family. Inf. xxxii. 63, 
et aliubi. 


preente Sa of the Zodiac. Para. 
Can" Grass della Scala. Inf. i. 101. 


Para. xvii. 76. 
Canne. Inf. xxviii. n. 


Caorsines. Para. xxvii. 58. 
re a 2% Inf. xiv. 63; xxv. 15. 
Capet, Hugh. Pur. xx. 43, 49. 


Caponsacchi, family. Para. xvi. 121. 

Cappeletti (Capulets). Pur. vi. 106, 

Capraia. Inf. xxxiii. 82. 

Capricorn, sign of the Zodiac. Pur. 
ll. 57. Para. mnie ‘he 

Caprona. Inf. xxi. 

Cardinal, the (Ottaviano degli Ubal- 
dini). "Inf. x. 120. 

Cardinal virtues. Pur. xxix. 

Carisenda. Inf. xxxi. 136. 

Carlino de’ Pazzi. Inf. xxxii. 69. 

Carlyle, John A, (translator and 
critic). Inf. ii, n. 3 Vi. a? vil. 2. 


n.; XX. n.j xxi. nm. xxiv. m 
iii. n. Para. Vii. n. 
Carlyle, T homas (philosopher). 


Para. xxxil. n. 
Carpigna, Guido di. 
Carrara. Inf. xx. 48. 
Carthage. Inf. xxxi. n. 

Cary (translator and critic). Inf, iv. 
n.; vil. N.5 1x. n.3 xi. 1.5 xii. n 
bis; xvi. n. bis; xxi. n.3 XXviil. 
N. 3 XXxiv. n. Pur. vii. n. 3X. nj 


Pur. xiv. 98. 


Xvli. n.; xviii. n. bis. Para. i. n.} : 


iv. n.; xii. n.; xiii. n.; xvii. n. 
Casale. Para. xii. 124. - 
Casalodi, family. Inf. xx. 95. 
Casella. Pur. ii. gt. 
Casentino. si xxx. 65. 

94; xiv. 

Cassero, Guida del. 
Cassero, Jacopo del, 


Pur. v. 


Inf. xxviii. 77. 
Pur. v. 67. 


Cassino, Monte. Inf. xxviii. n. 
Para. xxii. 37. 

Cassius. Inf. xxxiv. 67. 

Cassius and Brutus. Para. vi. 74. 


Castello, family. 

Castile. Para. xii. 53. 

Castile of St. yet in Rome. Inf, 
XViil. 31. 

Castor and Pollux. Pur. iv. 61. 

Castrocaro. Pur. xiv. 116, 


Pur. xvi. 125. 














General Index. 


489 





CLEM 





CASU 
- Casulanus. Inf. xxii. n. 
ano. Inf. xxiii. 104, 114. 


Catalonia. Para. viii. 77. 


Catellini, family. Para. xvi. 88. 

Catiline. Inf. xxiv. n.; xxv. n. 

Cato of Utica. Inf. xiv. 15. Pur. 
i, 313 li. 119. . 

Catria, Para. xxi. 109. 

Cattolica. Inf. xxviii. 80. 

Caurus, northwest wind. Inf. xi. 
114. 

ee de Cavalcanti. Inf. x. 


Cavalcanti, Guercio. Inf. xxv. 151. 


— Cavalcanti, Guido. Inf. x. 63. 
~ Cecina. Inf. xiii. 
Cecropia. Inf. xvii. 2. 


Celestial Hierarchies. Para. xxviii. 
Celestine V. Inf. iii. 59; xxvii. 105. 
lini, Benvenuto. _Inf. vii. n. 

Cenchri, serpents. Inf. xxiv. "E 

Centaurs. Inf. xii. 56; xxv. n. Pur 
XXiV. 121. 

Ceperano. Inf. xxviii. 16. 

Cephas. Para. xxi. 127. 

a giana Inf. vi. 13, 22, 323 ix. 


Carchi, family. Inf. iv. n. 
xvi. 65, et aliubi, 
Ceres. Pur. xxviii. 51. 
Certaldo. Para. xvi. 50. 
Cervia. Inf. xxvii. 42. 
Cesena. Inf. xxvii. 52. 
Ceuta. Inf. xxvi. 111. 
Chalcidianic a Inf. xvii. n. 
Chaos. Inf. xii. 
en, St. Joba’ examines Dante 
Para. xxvi 
Charlemagne Emperor. Inf. xxxi. 
Para. vi. 95; xxiii. 43, et aliubi. 
Charles IL. of Apulia. Pur. vii. 1275 
xx. 79. Para. vi. 106; xix. 127; 
xx. 63, et aliubi. 
en pater of Saran i Para. 


Para. 


Charles m "Anioa. ‘Inf. xvi. n. pe 


Ur. Wl. ‘£33, 1243 Xi. 1375 
et aliubi. 
Charles of Valois. Inf. vi. 69. Pur. 


v. 69; xx. 71, et aliubi. 

Charles Robert of Hungary. Para. 
viii. 72. 

Charles’s Wain, The Great Bear. 
Inf. xi. 114. Pur. i, 30} iv. 65. 
Para. ii. 9; xii. 7; xiii. 7. 

Charon. Inf. iii. 94, 109, 128. 

Charybdis. Inf. vii. 22. 

ee, examples of. Pur. xxv. 


Chaucer. Inf. vii., et aliubi. 





Chelydri, serpents. Inf. xxiv. 86. 

Cherubim, celestial creations. Para. 
i. n. 3 XXVili. 99; xxix. 

Cherubim, black. Inf. xxvii. 113. 

Chess, game of. Para. xxviii. n. 

phe aa Inf. xxix. 47. Para. xiii. 


Chiwedesha: Inf. xv. 9. 

Chiasi. Para. xi. 43- 

Chiassi. Pur. xxviii. 20. 

Chiaveri. Pur. xix. 100. 

Children, praise of. Para. xxvii. 
127, et aliubi. 


Chiron. Inf. xii. 65, 71, 77, 97) 104. 
Pur. ix. 37. 
Chiusi. Para. xvi. 75. 


Christ. Inf. xxxiv. 115. Pur. xv. 
89; xx. 875 xxi. 8; xxiii. 74 5 XXVi. 
129} XXxXil. 73, 1025 XXXxili. 63. 
Para. vi. 143 ix. 1203 xi. 72 102, 
107; Xil. 37) 71, 73, 75,3 XIV. 104, 
106, 108 ; xvii. 33, 513 xix. 72, 104, 
106, 108 } XX. 47 ; XXili. 20, 72, 105, 
136}; XXV. 15, 33, 113, 128; Xxix, 
98, 109 ; XXXI. 3, 107 ; XXxii. 20, 24, 


27, 83, 85, 87, 1253 xxxili. 121. 
And see Name, Sacred. 
Christians. Pur. x. 121. Para. v. 
733 XixX. 109; XX. 104. 
Chrysaor. Inf. xvii. n. 


Chrysostom, St. Para. xii. 137. 
Church and State. Inf. xix. n. ; 
Pur. xvi. 


Xxviii. n. 1273 XXxil. 
112, et aliubi. 

Church, Dean (critic). Inf. iii. n. 

is. Pur. vii. n.3 xxxii. n. 

Ciacco. Inf. vi. 52, 58. 

Ciampolo, or Giampolo. Inf. xxii. 
48, 121. 

Cianfa de’ Donati. Inf. xxx. 43. 

Cianghella. Para. xv. 128. 

Cicero. Inf. iii. n.; vi. n.; xi. n. 
xviii, m.; xxvii, n.3  xxxil. n. 
Pur. x. n. Para. xi. n. 

Cimabue. Pur. xi. 94. 


ree Quintius. Para. vi. 46; 
XV. 12 

Cione de’ 'Tarlati, Pur. vi. 15. 

Circe. Inf. xxvi. gt. Pur. xiv. 42. 

een demon. Inf. xxi. 122 ; xxii. 

Civil law of Rome. Inf. xix. n. 
Pur. vii. n. 

Civil Wars of Rome. Inf. xx. n., et 
aliubi. 

Clara, St., of Assisi. Para. iii. 98. 

Claudian (poet). Inf. viii. n.; xx. 


n, 
Clemence, daughter of Charles Mar- 
tel. Para, ix. x, 


490 


General Index. \ 





CLEM 


CYTH 





Clement IV. Pur. iii. 125. 

Clement V. Inf. xix. 83. Para. xvii. 
823 xxx. 1433 xxvii. 58. 

Clement VI. Inf. xviii. n. 

Cleon. Inf. xx. n. : 

Cleopatra. Inf. v. 63. Para. vi. 76. 

Cletus. Para. xxvii. 41. 

Clio. Pur. xxii. 58. 

Clotho. Pur. xxi. 27. 

Cluverius. Pur. xxi. n. 

Clymene. Para. xvii. 1. 

Cock, arms of Gallura. Pur. viii. 81. 
Cocytus. Inf. xiv. 119; xxxi. 123; 
Xxxili. 156; xxxiv. 52, et aliubi. 

Code, Roman civil. Pur. vii. n. 

Ceeus. Inf. xxxi. n. 

Coinage, Florentine. Inf. xxx. n. 

Colchians. Inf. xviii. 87. 

Colchis. Para. ii. 16. 

Coleridge (poet), Inf. v. n., et aliubi. 

Colle. Pur. xiii. 115. 

Cologne. Inf. xxiii. 63. Para. x. 99. 

Colonna, family. Inf. iii. n. Pur. 
Xxxli. n. 3; xxvii. 86, et aliubi. 

Comedy. See Divine Comedy. 

Communion. Para. ii. 10; x. 139 
and n. 3 xXiv. 15 xxv. 24. 


Confession. Pur. ix. 94, 117. Para. 
Vv. 55, 82. 
Conio. Pur. xiv. 116. 


Conradin. Inf. xxviii. n. Pur, xx. 
68. 

Conrad, or Currado I., Emperor. 
Para. xv. 13 

Conrad, or Convis: da Palazzo. 
Pur. xvi. 124. 

Conrad, or Currado, Malaspina. Pur. 
viii. 65, 109, 118. 

Conscience. Inf. xxviii. 115. 


Constantine the Great. Inf. xix. 
1153 xxvii. 94. Pur. xxxii. 125. 
Para. vi. 1} Xx. 55. 

Constantinople. Inf. xv. n. Para. 


vi. 5, et aliubi. 
Contingency. Para. xvii. 37. 
Contrition. Inf. ix. 97. 


Copernicus. Inf. xxxiv. n. Para. 
Vili. n. 

Cordeliers. Inf. xvi. n. 

Coriolanus, Inf. vii. n. 

Cornelia. Inf. iv. 128. Para. xv. 
129. 

Corneto. Inf. xii. 137} xiii. 9. 

Coronis. Inf. viii. n. 

Correggio. Inf. vi. n. 

Corsica. Pur. xviii. 81. 


Corso, Donati. 

aliubi. 
Cortigiani, family, Para. xvi. 112. 
Cosenza. Pur. ili. 124. 


Pur. xxiv. 82, et 





Costanza, Queen of Aragon. Pur. 
iii. 115, 1433 Vii. 129. 

Costanza, wife of Henry VI. of 
Germany. Pur. iii, 113. Para. 
iil. 118; iv. 98. 


Counsellors, ond Inf. xxvi. 


les weeree rs 


“4 - ss = . 
oO Nara er NET LANA BEN. Wr 20 ete 


Counterfeiters, of money, speech, or — et 


person. Inf. xxx. 

Courtray. _ Inf. xix, n. 

Cowley. Pur. xxvi. n. 

Cowper. Inf. xii. n. bis; xiii, n.; 
Xxxi. Me} xxii. n. Pur. xxii. n. 
Para. xviii. n.3 xxi. n. 

Crassus. Pur. XX. 116. 


Creation. Pur. xviii. Para. vii. 


fin. ; x. init. ; xiii. 49, 843 xxix.” 


1-8 


Creation of celestial beings, matter, i 


and men. Para. xxix 
Creation of the soul ‘and body. Para. 
i, n. 


Cremona. Inf. xxxii. n. 

Crescembini. Inf. xxiv. n, 

Crete. Inf. iii. n.; xii. 123 xiv. 95, 
et aliubi. 

Creusa, wife of AEneas. Para. ix. 
98. 

— of Jerusalem. Para. xix. 


Crlepbeund: Demon. Inf. xxi. n. 

Croatia. Para. xxxi. 103. 

Cross, The. Para. xiv. 102. And see 
Crucifixion. 

Crosses, the three of the equinox. 
Para. i. 3 and n, 

Crotona. Para. viii. 62. 

Crown and Throne awaiting the 
Emperor Henry VII. of Luxem- 
burg. Para. xxx. 133. 


Crucifixion. Inf. xxi. n.; xxiii, n. 
Para. vil. ; ix. 123; xiii. rae 
Crusades. inf X. 1.3 XXvil. n 


Crusaders and Soldiers of the Faith. 
Para. xiv. 


Cunizza, sister of Ezzelino III. 


Para. 1x. 32. 
Cujas. Inf. xi. n 
Cupid. Para. viii. 7. 
Curiatii, The. Para. vi. 39. 
Curio. Inf. xxviii. 93, 102. 
Std (American general). Para, 
Cyeloda: Inf. xiv. 55. 
Cycnus. Inf. xvii. n. 
Cypria (Venus). Para. viti. 2. 
ire Inf. xxviii. 82. Para. xix. 


Oyate Para. i. ¥ 
Cyrus. Pur, xiii 
Cytherea (Vesna ee XXVil. 95. 








ms 2") 2. ae 





General Index. 


491 








DEDA 
oe. Inf. xvii. 3; xxix. 116. 
Para. viii. 126. 
Damietta. Inf. xiv. 104. 
Daniel, Prophet. Pur. xxii. 146. 
Para. lv. 13} XXix. 134. 
_ Daniel, Arnaud. Pur. xxvi. 115, 
} 142. . 
cents Pur. xxx. 55. Para. xv. 


137: 

Dantier (historian). ae xxii, n. 

Danube. Inf. xxxi. n.; xxxii. 26. 
Para. viii. 65. 

Daphnis. Inf. xx. n. 

Dares (boxer). _ Inf. Xvi. n. 

Darius. Inf. xii. n., et aliubi. 

cee ba ‘equ Inf. iii. n., et 

David, Mine: Inf. iv. 58; xxviii. 
138. Pur. x, 65. Para. xx. 38; 
XXV. 723 Xxxil. 11. 

Day o Judgment. 
to end; xxx. 45. 

Dead, prayers for. Pur. 3 fin. ; iv. 
1333 V. 70, 893, ‘yi. 26, 28-48; viii. 
7° 5, Xi. 795 xili. 93, 124-9, 142-7 ; 
xxii, 1423 XXvi. 127, 145. 

one Inf. xxviii. n. 


Tiaceekale. Book of. Para. x. 134. 

Deepred (demon). Inf. xxi. n. 

Degeneracy. _ Para. viii. 

Deidamia. Inf. xxvi. 62. 
Xxii. 114. 

Deiphile. Pur. xxii. 110. 

Dejanira. Inf. xii. 68. 

De la Brosse, Pierre. Pur. vi. 22. 

Delia (the moon). Pur. xx. 132; 


xxix. 78 
Delos. 


Para. xix. 106 


Para. vi. 


Pur. 


Pur. xx. 130. 
ocritus. Inf. iv. 136. 
lar See Malebranche. 
ophoén. Para. ix, ror. 
Dears ion. - Pur. xxxiii. n. 
Diamond necklace. Inf. xx. n. 
Diana. Pur. xx. 1325 xxv. 131. 
Para. xxiii. 26. 
Diana, subterranean river. Pur. 
xiii. 153. 
Dice, game with, of zero, zara. Pur. 


Dickens (author). Inf. vi. n. 

Dido. Inf. v. 61, 85. Para, viii. 9; 
ix. 97. 

— examples of. Pur. xviii. 

Diogenes, Inf. iv. 137. 

Diomede. Inf. xxvi. 55. 

Dione. The Goddess Venus. Para. 
viii, 7; the Planet Venus. Para. 
XXii. 144, 





EBRO 
Dionysius, the Areopagite. Para. i, 
ns x r153. XXVili. 130. 
Dionysius, King. Para. xix. 139. 
Dionysius, Tyrant. Inf. xii. 107. 
Dioscorides. Inf. iv. 140. 
Diphthong, a, new. Inf. iv. r4o0, 
et aliubi. 


Dis, City of. Inf, vill, 68; vi. 65; 
xii. 393; XXXiv. 20, et aliubi. 

Divine Comedy. Inf. xvi. 128}; xx. 
Eig. XX 2; 

Doctors of the Church, Para. i. n. 
and Cantos x., xi., xii., xiii., and 
xiv. 

Dogface (demon). Inf. xxi. n. 

Dolci (critic), Inf, iv. n. 

Dolcino, Fra. Inf. xxviii. 55. 

Dominions, celestial creations, Para. 
i. n, ; XXvill, 122; xxix. 

Dominic, St. Pur. xxix. n, 
X. 953 xi. 38, 121; xii. 65, 70. 

Dominicans. Para. xi. 124. 

Domitian, Emperor. Pur. xxi. n.; 
Xxii. 83. 

Don, river. Inf. xxxii. 27. 

Donati, Buoso. Inf. xxv. 140; xxx. 


Para. 


Inf. xxv. 43. 
Pur. xxiv. 82. 


44, 
Donati, Cianfa. 
Donati, Corso. 
Para. iii. 106, 
Donati, Forese. Pur. xxiii. 48, 76; 
xxiv. 73. Para. iii. 106. 
Donation of Constantine. Inf. xix. ; 
xxvii. See Constantine, and notes, 


Donati, Piccarda. Pur. xxvii. 2. 
Para. iii. 49 

Donato, Ubertino. Para. xvi. 119. 

Donatus. Pur. iii. n. Para. xii. 
137. 

Dorotheus. Para. vi. n. 

Douay. Pur. xx. 46. 

Draghignazzo, demon. Inf. xxi. 


1213 xii. 73. 

Dragon. Pur. xxxii. 131. 

Dragonface (demon). Inf. xxi. n. 

Dramatic pause. Inf. ix. 8, and n. ; 
xxlil. 109. Para. xviii. 92. 

Duca, Guida del. Pur. xiv. 81; xv. 
44. 

Duera, Buoso da. Inf. xxxii. 116. 


Duke of Athens, Thesus. Inf. ix. 
54; xii. 17. Pur. xxiv. 123. 

Durante. ur. xii. n. 

Durazzo. Para. vi. 65. 


Eagle bearing Ganymede and Dante. 
Pur. ix. 
Eagle, imperial. 
Earle (historian). 
Ebro. Pur. xxvii. 3. 


Para. vi., et aliubi. 
Para. xxiv. n. 
Para. ix. 89. 


492 


General Index. 








ECLI FELI 
Ecliptic. Pur. iv. n. Eumenius and Thoas. Pur. xxvi. 
Ecliptic and three crosses. Para. i. 95. 
37, and n. Eunoé. Pur. xxvii. 1313 XXXiii, 127. 
ig a iv. of Virgil. Pur. xxii. | Euphrates. Pur. xxxiii. rr2. 
Euphrosyne. Inf. xxvi. n. 
eden, garden of. Pur. last ‘seven | Euridanus. Pur. viii. n. 


cantos. 
Edward I. Para. xix. 122, and n. 
Edward the Confessor. Inf, xii. n. 
Egypt. Pur. ii. 46. Para. xxv. 55. 
Ehrhard de Valleri. Inf. xxviii. n. 
El and Eli, names of God. Para. 
XXVi. 134, 136. 
Elbe. Pur. vii. 99. 
eee Inf. iv. 121; xxx. n. Pur. 


Elijah '(Elias), Prophet. 
35. Pur. xxxii. 80 
Eliseo, ancestor of Dante. 

Xv. 136. 
Elisha, prophet. Inf. xxvi. 34. 
Elsa. Pur. xxxiii. 67. 
Elysium. Para. xv. 27. 
Ema. Para. xvi. 143. 
Emerson. Pur. iii. n., et aliubi. 
Empedocles. Inf. iv. 138, et aliubi. 
Empyrean. Pera. xxx. 
Enchantress, of Virgil. 
England. Pur. vii. 131. 
Entellus (boxer). Inf. 
Enzo. Inf. xxii. n. 
Envious, The. Pur. viii. ; xiv. 
Ephialtes. Inf. xxxi. 94, 108. 
Epicurus, Inf. x. 14. 
Equator. Pur. iv. 80. Para. i. 37. 
Equinox, and three crosses. Para. 
i. 37, and n. 
Erasmus. Pur. xix. n. 
Erichtho. — Inf. ix. 23. 
alles The Furies. 
Eriphyle. Inf. xx. n. 
Para. iv. n. 
Erisicthon. Pur, xxiii. 26. 
Eryphylus. Inf. xx. 112. 
Erythia. Inf. xvii. n. 
ae Para. viii. 1303 


Inf. xxvi. 


Para. 


Inf. xx. n. 


Xvi. n. 


Inf. ix. 45. 
Pur. xii. 50. 


xxxii. 68, 


Eschatology of Dante. Inf. i. 
Pur. xxii. n.3 xxv. n., et aliubi. 

Este or Esti, Azzone da. Pur. v. 77. 

Este or Esti, Obizzo da. Inf. xii. 
33 Xviii. 56. 
sther. Pur. xvii. 29. 

Eteocles and Polynices, sons of 
(Edipus. Inf. xxvi. 54. Pur. xxii. 
56. 

Eieocles son of Andras. Inf. 
XXVi 

Euclid. Ene. iv. 142. 

Eumenides. Pur. xxi. n. 





Euripides. Inf. xxx.n. Pur. xii. 106. 

Europa, panei of Agenor. Para. 
XXvii. 

Eurus, ina wind. Para. viii. 


Euryalus. Inf. i. 108. 

Eurydice. Inf. xxxii. n. 

Eurystheus. Inf. xvii. n. 

Eustace (critic). Inf.- xii. n., et 
aliubi. 

Eutyches. Para. vi. n. 

Evander. Inf. xvii. n., et aliubi. 

Evangel. Pur. xxii. 154. 

—— the four. Pur. xxix. 

ieee Pur. viii. 99; xii. 713 xxiv. 


1163 xxix. 243 XXX. ie 

Para. xiii. 38 3 xxxii. 
Evil-claws. Inf. xvi. xxi., Xxii. 
Evil counsellors. Inf, xxvi. 
Evil Pits. Inf. xviii. to xxxi. 
Evil Tail. Inf. xxi., xxii. 
Evippe. Inf. xxvi. n. 
Excommunication. Pur. iii. 133. 
Ezekiel, Prophet. Pur. xxix. 160. 
Ezzelino or Azzolino. Inf. xii. 110. 

Para. ix. 29. 


Fabbro. Pur. xiv. roo. 

Fabii. Para. vi. 47. 

Fabricius. Pur. xx. 25. 

Faenza. Inf. xxvii. 49; xxxii. 123. 
Pur. xiv. 161. - 

Faith. Para. i. n., and cantos. 

Faith, St. Peter examines Dante on. 


32. 


ara. XXiv. ‘ 
Falterona. Pur. xiv. 17. 
Famagosta. Para. xix. 146. 


Fame. Pur. ii. 100, r15. 

Fame, derived from just ambition. 
Paras 305% and canto v. 

Fano. Inf. xxviii. 76. Pur. v. 71. 

Fantoli, Ugolin de’. Pur. xiv. 121. 

Farfarello (demon). Inf. xxi. 123; 


Xxil. 94. 

Farinata degli Scoringiani. Pur. vi. 
18, et aliubi. 

Farinata degli Uberti. Inf. vi. 79; 
X, 923 Ries nas xxiii. n. 


Fates. Inf. xxi. n. 3 xxxiii. n. 

Fauriel (critic). Tk. xxviii. 1. 

Fedi (sculptor). Inf. XxX. 0. 
elix Guzman. Para. xii. 79. 


Felix Minutius. Pur. ii. n, 











General Index. 











XIX. 100, 

Inf. xv. 62. 
ra. Vi. 533 XV. 121 3 Xvi. 122. 

“Filan, Sal Sifanti, family. Para. 





Figghine, Para. xvi. 

a age Monaldi, families. 
Pur. vi 

Fiorentino ‘(citic). Inf. vi. n. 

Fire, death by, Para. vii. 18. 

Fishes, sign of the Zodiac. 
113. 


Inf. xi. 
Pur. i. 213 viii. n. 3 xxxii. 


54- 
Fixed stars. Para. i. n. and Canto 


a) > exii. 
_ Flaiterers. Inf. xviii. 
_ Flemings. Inf. xv. 4. 


Florence. Inf. x. 92; xiii. 143 ; xvi. 
753, Xxili. 955 XXIV. 1445 XXVi. 15 
xxxii. 120. - vi. 1273 ae Sige 


xiv. } XX. 75% Xxiv. 79. vi. 
54; ix. 127. The Devils Plant, xv. 
973 Xvi. 25, 40, 84, 111, 146, 1493 
Xvil. 48} XXV. 53 XxXiX. 103; XXxi. 


39, et aliubi. 

Florentines. Inf. xv. 615 xvi. 73; 
xvii. 70. Pur. xiv. 50; xxiii. 94. 
Para. xvi. 86, et aus 

Florian (poet). Inf. xi. n. 


Florin, coin of Florence. Inf. xxx. 
Para. xviii. 135. 

Flower de Luce, arms of France. 
Par. xx. 86. 

Focaccia. _ Inf. xxxii. 63. 

Focara. Inf. xxviii. 89. 

Folco di es: Para. ix. 94. 

Folgore (Poet). Inf. xxix. n. 

Foraboschi, family. Para. xvi. 109. 

Foreknowledge. Para. xvii. 40. And 
see Mirror. 

Forese Donati, Pur. xxiii. 48, 76; 
xxiv. 73. Para. iii. 106. 

Forli. Inf. xvi. 99; xx. n.j xxvii. 
43. Pur. xxiv. 32. 

Forsyth (critic). 
aliubi. 

Fortitude. Pur. xxix. 

Fortunatus. Inf. xxxiv. n. 

Fortune. Inf. vii. 62. 

gape greater. See Fortuna Ma 


Inf. vi. n., et 


jor. 
Fortuna Major. Pur. xix. 
Fosco, Bernardin di. Pur. xiv. 101. 


Fra Angelico. Inf. vi. n. 
France. Inf. xix. 873 XXVvil. 44; 
Xxix. 123} XXxii. 115. Pur. vii. 





FELT GANE 
‘Feltro. Inf. i. 105. Para. ix. 52. 109; xx. 51. P iil. 753 xv. 
Fénelon. Inf. xi. n. ry : A ee 
Ferrara. Para. xv. 137. Francesca da Rimini. Inf. v. 116; 
Fieschi, Counts of Lavagno. Pur.| xxvii. n, 


Francis of Accorso. Inf. xv. 110, 
Francis, St., of Assisium. Inf. i, n. 


xvi. n. bis ; 3; XXvii. 112. Para. 
xi. 37, 50, 743 Xili. 33; xxii. 90; 
Xxxii. 35, et aliubi. 
Franciscans. Para, xii. 112. 
Francisconi (critic). Inf. iv. n. 
Franco Bolognese. Pur. xi. 83. 
Fraud, ie ear Inf. xviii. n. 
Frederick ’ . (Barbarossa). Pur. 


Xviii. sot 

Frederick II. (grandson of Barba- 
rossa). Inf. x. 119}; xiii. 59, 68; 
a — ‘ur. Xvi. 117. 


Frederick Novello. Pur. vi. 17. 
Frederick Tignoso, Pur. xiv. 106, 
Frederick, King of Sicily. Pur. vii. 
11g. Para. xix. 130} XX. 63. 
Free will. Pur. viii. 1135 XVi. 715 
XVill. 74; xxi. 61, 1053 xxvii. fin., 
also first five cantos of Para. and 
Para. xvii. 405 XX. 41} Xxvi. 12} 
XXVil. 1243 XX1X. 633 Xxxili. 143; 
XXXli. 45. 
Frozenheel (demon). Inf. xxi. n. 
Fucci, Vanni. Inf. xxiv. 125. 
Fulcieri da Sekar Pur. xiv 58. 
Furies. Inf. ix. 38. 


Gabriel, Archangel. Inf. xvii. n. 
Pur. x. 34. Para. iv. 47}; ix. 1385 
xiv. 36; xxili. 103; xxxil. 94, 112. 

hey son of Ugolino. Inf. xxxiii. 


Gades, Cadiz. 


Para. xxvii. 83. 
Gaéta. 


Inf. xxvi. 92. Para. viii. 
62. 

Gaia, daughter of Ghérardo. Pur. 
XVi. 140. 

Galaxy. Para. xiv. 99. 

Galen. Inf. iv. 143. 

Galeotto. Inf. v. 137. 

Galicia. Para. xxv. 18. 

Galigajo. Para. xvi. ror. 

Galileo, Para. viii. n. ; XXVil. 
XXVill. n. 

Galli, family. Para. Xvi. 105. 

Gallura. Inf. xxii. 82. Pur. viii. 81. 

Gallus. Inf. xxxi. n. 

Galuzzo. Para. xvi. 53. 

Gambols of the Demons. 
Xxii. 

Game, of zero, zara. Pur. vi. 1.5 
of chess. Para. xxviii. n. 

Ganellon. Inf. xxxii. 122. 


Dn. j 


Inf. xxi., 


493 


Para. 


494 


General Index. 





GANG 


GUEL 





Ganges. Pur. ii. 5; xxvii. 4. Para. 
xi, 51. 

Ganymede. Pur. ix. 23. 

Garda. Inf. xx. 6 

Garden of Eden. 
of Pur. 

Gardingo, street of Florence. Inf. 
xxiii. 108. 

Garisendi, family. Inf. xxxi. n. 

Gascons. Para. xxvii. 58. 

Gascony. Pur. xx. 66. 

Gate of Purgatory. Pur. ix. go. 

Gaville. Inf. xxv. 151. 

Gemini, sign of the Zodiac. Pur. 
iv. n. Para, xxii. 111, 1523 xxvii. 
98. 

Genesis. Inf. xi. 107. 

Genoa. Para. ix. 92. 

Genoese. Inf. xxxiii. 151. 

*Gentucca. Inf, xxiv. 37. 

Geomancers. Pur. xix. 4. 

Georgics of Virgil. Para. 
et aliubi. 

Gerault de Berneil. Pur. xxvi. 120. 

‘Geri, contraction of Alighieri, q. v. 

Geri, or Alighieri del Bello. Inf. 
XXIX, 27. 

Germans. Inf. xvii. 21. 

Geryon. Inf. xvii. 97, 1333 xviii. 
20, Pur. xxvii. 23. 

Ghent. Inf. xv. n. Pur. xx. 46, et 

. aliubi. 

Ghérardo the Good. Pur. xvi. 124, 


133, 138. E 

Ghibellines and Guelphs. Inf. i. 
and notes; vi. 65; x. 513 xix. and 
notes. Pur. vi. Para. xvi. et 
aliubi. 

Ghino di Tacco. Pur. vi. 14, 

Ghisola, sister of Caccianimico. Inf. 
Xvili. 55. 

Ghosts, passim. 

Ghost-body. Pur. xxiii. 22, et seq. ; 
xxv. 61. Para. xiv. 52. 

Giampolo, or Ciampolo, the Na- 
varese. Inf. xxii. 48, 121. 

Gianfigliazzi, family. Inf. xvii. 59. 

Gianni Schicchi. Taf. XXX. 32, 44. 

Gianni del Soldanieri. Inf. xxxii. 


Past seven cantos 


xiii. n., 


I2t. 

Giano della Bella. Pur. vi. n. 
Para. xvi. 132. 

Giants. Inf. xxxi. 44. Pur. xii. 33. 

Gibbon (historian). Inf. iv. n., et 
aliubi. 

Gideon. Pur. xxiv. r2s. 

Gilboa, Mount. Pur. xii. 41. 

Giotto. Pur. xi. 95, et aliubi. 

Giovanna di Montefeltro. Pur. v. 





Giovanna Visconti of Pisa. Pur. 
Vili. 71. 

Giuda. Para. xvi. 123. 

Giugni, family. Inf. xxvi. 8, n. 

Giuochi, family. Para. xvi. 104. 

Glaucus. Inf. xxvi.n. Para. i. 68; 


XXi. 19. ~ 


XXX, 

Glorified Earthly body of the Res- 
urrection. Inf. vi. 94; xX. 10. 
Para. xiv. 433 XXV. 913 Xxx. 45. 

Gluttons. Inf. vi. Pur. xxii., xxiii., 
xxiv. 

Gnosian Jand. Inf. xvii. n. 

Godfrey of Bouillon. Para. xviii. 47. 

Golden Age. Pur. xxii. fin. Para. 
xxi. 

Gomita, Fra. Inf. xxii. 81. 

Gomorrah. Pur. xxvi. 40. 

ise head of Medusa. Inf. ix. 


56. 

Gorgona. Inf. xxxiii. 82. 
Gourniere (historian). Para. xi. n. 
eb scte now Governolo. Inf. xx. 


78. 

Grace, Bishop. Inf. iii. n. 

Graces, The. Inf. xxvi. 54, and n. 

Graffiacane (demon). Inf. xxi. 122; 
xxii. 

Grahame (historian). Inf. xix. n. 

pth thas (demon). Inf. xxi. n. 

Gratian. Para. x. 104. 

Gravitation, attraction of. Inf. 
XXxii, 13 XXXIV. ITI. 

Gray (poet). Pur. viii. n. 

Greater Fortune. See Fortuna Ma- 


jor. ; 

Greci, family. Para. xvi. 89. 

Greece. Inf. xx. 108. 

Greeks. Inf. xxvi. 75. Pur. ix. 39; 
xxii, 88. Para. v. 

Gregory, The Great, St. Inf. xviii. 
n. Pur. x. 75; xx. 1083 XXviil. 
133. Para. xxiii. n.3 xxiv. n. 

Gregory IX. Inf. x. n. f 

Gregory VII., Pope. Pur. xxxiii. n. 

Gregory of Tours, St. Inf. xxxiy. n. 

Ne Lat ong Inf. i. ror. 

Griffolino d’ Arezzo. Inf. xxix. 109; 
XXX. 31, 

Gryphon. Pur. xxix. 108; xxxii. 26. 

Gualandi, family. Inf. xxxiii. 32. 

Gualdo. Para. xi. 48. 

Gualdrado. Inf. xvi. 37. 

Gualterotti, family. Para. xvi. 133. 

Gubbio, or Aggobbio. Pur. xi. 80. 

Guelphs and Ghibellines. Inf. i. n,; 
vi. 653 X. 513 xix. notes. Pur vi. 
Para. xvi., et aliubi. 





G 
G 
aoe sc Inf. vi. n. 


; Guglielmo Borsiere. 
; ge King of Navarre. 


7 Beatson, King of Sicily. Para. 





General Index. 


495 





GUEL 


HOME 





suelphs of Suabia. Pur. xxviii. n. 
suenever. Inf. v.n. Para. xvi. 15. 





im Aldobrandeschi. Pur. xi. 


Inf. xvi. 70. 
Pur. 


xx. 62. 
Guid, Sostie Inf. xxvii. n. Para. 


Guido (artist) Inf. vi. n. 

Guido Bonati. Inf. xx. 118, 

Guido di Carpigna. Pur. xiv. 98. 

Guido del Cassero. Inf. xxviii. 77. 

Guida da Castello. Pur. xvi. 125. 

Guido Cavalcanti. Inf. x. 63, 111. 
Pur. xi. 97, et aliubi. 


_ Guido, —— of Montefeltro. Inf. 


xxvii 
Guido, Coan of Romena. Inf. xxx. 


Guido del Duca. Pur. xiv. 81. 

Guidoguerro. Inf. xvi. 38. 

Guido Guinicelli. Pur. xi. 97; xxvi. 
92, 97; et aliubi. 

Guido da Monforte. 

Guido of Montefeltro. 


XXvii. n. 
ese. agp da Polenta. 


Inf. xii. 119. 
Inf. xx. n. ; 


Inf. 
aldnda ‘Prata. Pur. xiv. 104. 


Guido Ravignani. Para. xvi. 98. 
Guinicelli, Guido. See supra. 
Guiscard, Robert. Inf. xxviii. 14. 


Para. xviii. 4%. 
Guingené (critic). 
Pur. i. n. 
Guittone d’ Arezzo. Pur. xxiv. 56; 
XXVi. 124. 
Guzman, family, Para. xii. notes. 


Inf. xxviii. n. 


Hadrian. Inf. xviii. n. 

Haman. Pur. xviii. 26. 

Hammer, Martel Charles; Makkab, 
Judas. Para. xviii. 40, "and n. 

Hannibal. Inf. xxxi. 117. Para, 
Vi. 503 xxviii., et aliubi. 

Harmonia. Inf. xx. n.; xxv. n. 

Harpies. Inf. xiii. AMS IOI} XViii. n. 


Harvey. Pur. v. 

Hatred. See Nisntles and Poly- 
nices. 

Hebrews. Pur. iv. 83; xviii. 1343 


= 124. Para. v. 493 xxxil. 17, 


bitin! Inf. iv. Para. vi. 


68. 
Hecuba. 


122. 


Inf. xxx. 16. Para. ix. n. 





Helen. Inf. v. 64. 
Helice (Callisto). 
Para. xxxi. 32. And see Bear. 

Helicon. Pur. xxix. 40. 
Heliodorus. Pur. xx. 113. 
Helios (The Sun), God. Para. xiv. 


Pur. xxv. 131. 


Heliotrope. Inf. xxiv. n. 

Hellespont. Pur. xxviii. 71. 

Henry (Arrigo), Fifanti. Inf. vi. 80. 

Henry (Amigo), Mainardi. Pur. 
xiv. 118 

ore II. of England. Inf. xxviii. 

Henry III. of England. Pur. vii. 


131. 
Henry IV. of France. 


Inf. xix. n. 

Henry V., Emperor. Para. iii. 119. 
Henry VIL, Emperor. Inf. xxxiv. 
n. Pur. Xxxiil. As) 9 Pala: XVI. 


82; xxvii. 63; xxx. 137, et aliubi. 
Henr of Luxemburg. See Henry 


Henry, the Young King. Inf. xxviii. 


135. 
Heraclitus. Inf. iv. 138. 


Heraldry. Inf. xvii., xxvii. 

Hercules (Hero). Inf. xxv. 325 
Xxx. 132. Para. ix. ror, et aliubi. 

Hercules (King). Inf. xxvi, 108. 

eo (Jewish priest). Inf. xix. 

Hercules (Tyrian deity). Inf. xxvi. 

Heretics. Inf. x. 

Hermitage of Camaldoli. Pur. v. 
96. 

Hermits, holy. Para. i. mn, and 


cantos xxi, and xxii. 

Herodotus. Pur. iv. n. 

Herschel. Inf. iv. n. 

Hesse. Pur. xiv. n. 

Hesperia. Inf. xxvi. n. 

agri a (commentator). Inf. xix. 

ara. Xxxiii. n. 

Hezekiah, King. Para. xx. 51. 

Hierarchies, Celestial, Para. xxviii. 

Hillard (author). Inf. xxi. n. 

Hippocrates. Inf. iv. 143; Xxxi. n. 
Pur. xxix. 137, et aliubi. 

Hippolytus, son of Theseus. 
Xvii. 46. 

History of Rome, reviewed by Jus- 
tinian. Para. vi. 

Holofernes. Pur. xii. 59. 

Holy Ghost. Pur, xx. 98. Para. 
i; 535) ks 

Holy Land. Para. xv. 142. 

Homer. Inf. iv. 88. Pur. xii. n.3 
xxli, 1013; xxviii. n., et aliubi. 


Para. 


496 


General Index. 








HOMI JERU 

Homicides. Inf. xii. Irascible, The. Inf. vii., viii. Pur. 
Honorius III. Para. xi. 98. XV., XVI. 
Honorius IV., Pope. Pur. xxiv. n. | Iris. ” Pur. xxi, 503 xxix. 78. Para. 
Hope. Pur. ili. 183. xii, 123 XXvViil, 325 xxxili, 119. 
Hope, St. James examines Dante | Isaac, patriarch, Inf. iv. 59. 

on. Para. xxv. | Isaiah, prophet, Para. xxv. 91. 
Horace. Inf, iv, 89; xvii.n. Para. | Isére. Para. vi. 59. 

vi. n., et aliubi. Isidore, St. Para. x. 
Horatii. Para. vi. 30. Ismene, daughter of Ceuipus. Pur. 
Hugh Capet. Pur. xx. 43, 49. xxii. 111, 
Hugh of St. Victor. Para. xii. 133. | Ismenus. Pur. xviii. gt. 


Hugo of Brandenburgh. Para. xvi. 
128, and n. 

Humboldt. Pur. i. n. 

Humility, examples of. Pur. xii, 

Hungary. Para. viii. 65; xix. 142. 

Hutchinson, Miss E. McK. ‘Inf. iii. 
n., et aliubi. 

Hyacinthus. Pur. xvi. n. 

Hyéres. Para. xxii, n. 

Hyperion. Para. xxii. 142. 

Hypocrites. Inf. xxiii. 

Hypothesis, nebular. Inf. iv. n. 

Hypsipyle. Inf. xviii. 92. Pur, xxii. 


112} XXVi. 95. 
Tapetus. Inf. xxxi. n. 

Iarbas. Pur, xxxi. 72. 

Iberian buils. Inf. xvii. n. Hak 
Icarus. Inf. xvii. ro9. Para. viii. 


126 

Ida, Mount. Inf. xiv. 98. 

Tlerda. Pur. xviii. 101. 

Ilion. Inf. i. 75. Pur. xii. 62; xxx. 
98, 114. Para. vi. 6. 

Illuminato, Para. xii, 130. 

Imola. Inf. xxvii. 49. 

Importuni, family. Para. xvi. 133. 

Inarime. Inf. xxxi. n. 

Incarnation. Para. ii. n. 

India. Inf. xiv. 32. 

Indians. Pur. xxxii. 41. 
IOI. 

Indulgences. Para. xxix. 120, 

Indus. Para. xix. 71, 

Infangato. Para. xvi..123. 

Innocent III. Para. xi. 92, et aliubi. 

Innocent IV. Inf. x. n. Pur. 
Xxiv. n. 

Ino, wife of Athamas. Inf. XXVi, a. 


Pur. 
Xxiv. gI, 


Para. xix. 


XXX. 5, 
Inspiration of the Scriptures. 
xxii. fin,.- Para, xx) 40% 
138; XXv. 2. 
Intermenei Alessio. Inf. xviii. 122. 
Intellectual power vain. Pur. ii. 9, 


gl. 

Io. Pur. Xxxil. n. 

Tole. Para. ix. ro2. 
Iphigenia. Para. v. 70. 


Israel (Jacob »; Patriarch. Inf. iv. 59. 

Israelites. ur. ii. 46, And see 
Hebrews. 

Italy. Inf. i. 106; ix 1tas xx, 615 
XXVii. 26; xxxiii. 80. Pur. vi. 76y 
105, 124: vii. 95; xiii. 96; Xiv. 5 
XX.67 5 ex Para. xxi. 106; 
Xxx. 138, egies of denounced. 
Para. ix. 25, 58. Pur. xiv, 

a ir Politics. Inf. xxv. n.; } XXVii. 


evi Pur. xvii. n. 


Itys. Pur, ix. n 
Ivica. Inf. xvii. n. 
Ixion. Inf. viii. n. 


Jacob, patriarch. hei: viii. 1315 
Xxil. 703 xXxxii. 

Jacobini, Cardinal. Inf, iii. n. 

Jacomo of Navarre. Pur. vii. 119. 
Para. xix. 137. 

Jacopo da ra the Notary. 
Pur. xxiv. 56. 

Jacopo del Cassero, Pur. v v. 67. 

gers of Sant’ Andrea. Inf. xiii. 


Jacopo Rusticucci. Inf. vi. 80; xvi. 


Inf. xxiv. 86. 


Joon! (serpents). 
Para. 


joe {King of Aragon). 


Tienes ( (king of the Balearic Islands), 
Para. xix 


James, St. ithe elder), apostle. Pur. 
xix. Pik xxxii, 76. Para. xxv. 
17,7 

Janicalim, Mount, Inf, xviii. 33. 
anus. Para. vi. 81. 

Jason, leader oF the Argonauts. Inf. 
xviii. 86. Para. ii. 1 

Jason, Hebrew. Inf. xix, 85. 

Jehoshaphat. Inf, x. 11. 

Jephthah. Para. v. 66. 

Jericho. Para. ix. 125. 

Mskerspck 7 Pur. xxix. n. Para. 

Jernaaiens Inf. xxxiv. 114. Pur. 





xxv. 56, et aliubi. 





ii. 33 xxiii. 29. Para. xix, 127; 


* 











General Index. 


497 





JEWS 


LATO 





Inf. xxiii. 123; xxvii. 87. 


ews. 
J And see 


a 47} Xxix. 102. 


Pc ei Abbot. Para. xii. r4o. 
oanna, mother of Saint Dominic. 
Para. xii. 80. 

Jocasta, etic of Thebes. Inf. 
xxvi. 52. Pur. xxii. 56. 

John Baliol. Para. xix. 122, and n. 
ohn the Baptist, St. Inf. xiii. 143; 

xxx. 74. Pur. xxii. 152. Para. 
an. 25 473 XVili. 134; xxxii. 31, 


Jobn elreiaatoen, St: | Para:: xii, 
137. 

in ‘of Procida. Inf. 

ohn, St., evangelist. . xix, 104, 
ur, xxix, 105, 1433; Xxxil. 76. 


Para. xxiv. 126; XXV. 94, 


XXXli. 127. 

John, St., Church in Florence. Inf. 
xix. 17. 

John xXr, Pope. Para. xii. 135. 

John XXIL, Pope. Para. xxvi., 58, 
et aliubi. 

ohn (jurist). Para. vi. n. 

ohn, of Saxony, King (translator 
and critic). Inf. xxiv, n, Pur. v. 
n. 5 vi, nj xi. n,; xiii. D. 5 Xxil. 
n. 5 xxiv. n. ; xxvii. n. Para. i. n.; 
iv.; 0. xxii. n. 

Joe of Virgil. Para. xxv. 7, and n. 


112} 


ohn of Seravalle. Pur. xvi. n. 
ohnson, Dr. Pur. iii, n. 
ings Pur. xviii. 135. Para. xxii. 


Pur. xv. gt. 
oshua. Pur, xx. 111. 
1253 Xviil. 38. 

Jove. Inf. xiv. 52; xxxi. 44, 92. 
Pur. vi. 1183 xii. 325 Xxix. 120; 
XXXii. 112. Para. iv. 63, et aliubi. 

jets Friars. Inf. xxiii. 103. 


eg cd yar hay Inf. xxx. 97. 
oseph, 
Para. ix. 


uba. Para, vi. 70. 
ubilee of the year 1300. Inf. i. n. 
xviii. 29. _ Pur. ii, 98. 

Judas Iscariot. Inf. ix. 27; xix. 96; 
xxi. 143 } xxxiv. 62. Pur. xx. 74; 
xxi. 84. 

udas 1 Para. xviii. 40. 
udecca. Inf. xxxiv. 
nage corrupt. Inf. xxvi. 52, and 

Tnderhent, last. Para. xix. 106 to 

end; Xxx. 45. 

udith. Para. xxxii. 10. 

ulia, daughter of Czsar. 


128. 
Julius Czsar. 


Inf. iv. 


Inf. i. 703 iv. 1233 





xxviii. 98. Pur. xviii. pe 
77. Para. vi. 573 xi. 

lene II., Pope. ae xxvii. n. 
uno. Inf. xvii. ms xxxi. Para. 
xii. 125 xxviii. 

Jupiter (supreme God). See Jove. 

Jupiter, planet. Para. xviii. 68, 70, 
95, 1153 xxii. 1453 XXVii. 14. 


Justice. Pur. ae Para. i. n.; 
XViii., xix., 
Justinian, Emperor. Pur. vi. 88. 


Para. vi. 10; vii. 5, et aliubi. 
Juvenal. Pur. xxii. 13. 


Kent (jurist). Inf. xix. n. 

Keys of St. Fer Bede xxiii. fin. ; 
Xxiv. 353 

Knights of St. Toke: wa XXVii. n. 

Knolles (critic). Inf. iv. 


Lacedemon (Sparta). Pur. vi. 139. 
chesis. Pur. xxi. 25; xxv. 79. 

Lacordaire. Para. xii. n. 

aie King of Bohemia. Para. 
xix. 

Lago di *Gando: ; Lago Maggiore. 
See Benacus. 

Laius. Inf. xxxiii. n. 

Lamberti, family. Para. xvi. 109. 
Inf. vi. 80; xxviii. 106. 

Lamone. Inf. xxvii. 49. 

Lancelot. Inf. v. 128. 

Lanciotto Malatesta. Inf. v. 107. 

Landino (commentator). Inf. xiv. 
n. Pur. xviii. n., et aliubi. 

Lanfranchi, family. Inf. xxxiii. 32. 

Langia, fountain of. Pur. xxii. 112. 


Lano. Inf: xiii. 120. 
Laocoén. Inf. xxviii. n. 
Lapithz. Inf. viii. n., et aliubi. 


Lapo, abbreviation of Jacopo, plural, 
Lapi. Para. xxix. 103 

Lapo (i. e. Jacopo) Salterello, Para. 
xv. 128. 


Larissa. Inf. xxvi. n. 


Lars Porsenna. Para. iv. n. 

Lasca, constellation. Pur. xxxii. 
54. 

ee church. Inf. xxvii. 86. 

Latian, for Italian. Inf. xxii. 65; 
XXVil.’ 33 3 Xxix. Ea gr. Pur. vii. 
163 Xi. 583 xiii. 

Latian land, Italy. “Inf. xxvii. 26; 
XXVill. 7 


Latini, Branettos Inf. xv. 30, 
ror, et aliubi. 

Latinus, King. 
v. n. 

Latona. Pur. xx. 131. 
Xxii. 139 5 xxix. I. 


32; 
Inf. iv. 125. Pur. 


Para. x. 67; 


498 


General Index. \ 





LAUG 


MALA 





Laughter, the Lady, the Soul. Para. 
vil. n; ix. 70; xX. 623 XViil. 1. 

Lavagno. Pur. xix. ror. 

Laurentian fields. Inf. xvii. n.; 
XXViii. n. 

Lavinia, bride of Aineas. Inf. iv. 
126. Pur. xvii. 37. Para. vi. 3. 
Lawrence, St. , martyr. Para. iv. 83. 

Leah. Pur. Xxvii. TOT. 

Leander. Pur. xxviii. 73. 

Learchus and Melicerta, 
5, 10. 

Lebanon. Pur. xxx. 11. 

Leda. Para. xxvii. 98. 


Inf. xxx. 


Lemnos. Inf. xviii. 88. 
Lentino, Jacopo da. Pur. Xxiv. 56. 
Leo X., Pope. Para. xii, n. 


Leo XIIL., Pope. Inf. iv. n. Para, 
xv. n. 


Lerice. Pur. iii. 49. 
Lethe, Inf. xiv. 131, 136. Pur. 
xxvi, 108 } XXVili. 1303 XXX. 143} 


XXxiii. 96, 123, et aliubi. 
Levi. Pur. xvi. 131. 
ae (demon). 

Xxil. 

Libra, Sign of the Zodiac. Pur. ii. 
init. ; xxvii. init. Para. xxix, init. 

Libya. Inf. xiv. n. 

Light, effects of. Pur. xxvi. n. 

Lily (flower de luce), arms of 

France. Pur. vii. 105. 

Limbo. Inf. ii. 52; iv. 24, 45. Pur. 

xxii. 14. - Para. xxxii. 33, 84, etc. 
Limoges. Pur. xxvi. 120. 
Linus. Para. xxvii. 41. 
Lion, sign of the Zodiac, 

373. Xxi. 14. 

Lipari. Inf. xiv. n. 

vy: hs f. iv. 1413 xxviii. 12. Pur. 

viii. 

Lizio, a8 Licio, of Valbona. Pur. 

Xiv. 97. 

Loderingo. Inf. xxiii. 104. 

odge, H. N. Pur. vii. n. 
Logodoro. _ Inf. xxii. 89. 

Lombard dialect. Inf. xxvii. 20. 
Lombard, the Great, Bartolommeo 

della Scala. Para. xvii. 71. 
Lombard, the Simple, Guido da 

Castello. Pur. xvi. 126. 
Lombardo, Marco. Pur. xvi. 46. 
Lombardi (commentator). Inf. iii. 

n., et aliubi. : 
Lombards. Inf. xxii. 99. 
Lombardy. Inf. xxviii. 74. Pur. 

xvi. 115, et aliubi. 

Longfellow, H. W. , Quotations from 

his poetical works. Inf. i. n.; 

xxiv. n. Pur. xxi. n. bis; xxii. 


Inf. xxi. 121; 


Para. xvi. 





n. Para. viii. n.$oX. Tg oa ee 
xxii. n. 3 xxii. n., bis. 
Citations from the notes to his 
translation of the Divine Comedy. 
Inf. ii. n.3 iti. n. 3 iv. n. bis; v. 
n. bis; x. n. bis; xii. n. 3 XV. 1.5 
xvi. n. bis; XX. I. j xxiv. m. 5 xxvi. 
n.3 xxviii. n. } xxxiii, n. 5 xxiv. 
n. Pur. vii. n.; xvi. n. 3 xxii. m.5 
XXV. JD. 5 XXvi. n. ter; xxvii. n.j 
xxviii. N. 3 xxxi. bis. Para. v. n. 5 
vi. n. bis; xii. n.; xxiii, n.j xxv. 
N. 3 XXX. n. 

Lord’s Prayer. Pur. xi. init. 

Louis, St. Inf. xix. n, 

Louises, Kgjngs of France. Pur. xx. 


50. 
Louvre, Palace. Inf. xvii. n. 
Lovers. Para. viii. 
Lowell, J. R. Pur. xxiii. n. Para. 


Lucan. Inf. iv. 90; xxv. 94, et 
aliubi. 
Lucca. Inf. xviii. 1225; xxi. 38} 


xxxiii. 30. Pur. xxiv. 20, 

Lucia, St. Inf. ii. 97, 100. Par. i ix. 
55. Para. xxxii. 137. 

Lucifer. Inf. xxxi. 143 } XXxiv. 89. 
Pur. xii, 25. Para. ix. 128; xix. 
473 XXvii. 263 xxix. 56. 

Lucretia. Inf. iv. 128. Para. vi. 41. 

Ludolph, the blessed. Para. xxi. n. 

Luke, St. Pur. xxi. xxix. 136. 

Luni. Inf. xx. 47. Bira, xvi. 73. 


ieee Henry of. See Henry 


Lybia. Inf. xxiv. 85. 
Lycoris. Inf. xxxi. n. 
Lycurgus. Pur. xxvi. 94. 
Lycomedes. Inf. xxvi. n. 


Pur. iii. n. 
Inf. xix. 86. Ree 
Maccabeus, Para. xviii. 
Macchiavelli. Inf. iii. n., et “aliubi. 
Macra, or Magra, River. Para. ix. 
89, et aliubi. 
Meotia. Inf xxi. n. 
Magus, Simon. Inf. xix. I. 
Mahomet. Inf. xxviii. 31, 62. 
Maia. Para. xxii. 144. 
Mainardi, Arrigo. Pur. xxiv. 118. 
Mainardi, Pagani. Inf. xxvii. 50. 
Pur. xiv. 118. 
an ae n. 3 xxviii. 82. 


Macarius, St. 
Macaulay. 
Maccabees. 


Majorca. 
Para. xix. 
Malacoda (vir Tai). Inf. xxi., xxii., 


Dalen: (historian). Para. xi. n. 








ell 





General Index. 


499 





MALA 


MINI 


> 





Malaspina, Currado. Inf. xvi. n. 
. Vili. 118. 

Malaspina, Morello. Inf. xxiv. n. 

Malatesta di Rimini. Inf. xxvii. 46. 

Malatestino. Inf. xxviii. 85. 


Malebolge (Evil-Pits). Inf. 
Xxxi. 
Malebranche (Evil-claws). Inf. xxi., 


Malicertes, Malicerta. Inf. xxvi. n. 
Malta, prison. Para. ix. 54. 
c epgoag King of Apulia. Pur. iii. 


Manfredi of Faenza. Inf. xxxiii. 
118. 
Manfredi, Tebaldello de’. Inf. 


XXxii. 122. 
Mangiadore, Peter. Para. xii. 134. 
Manning, Cardinal. Inf. xix. n. 

Para. xxxiii. n. 
Manto. Inf. xx. 55. 
Mantua. Inf. xx. 93. 
Mantuans. Inf. i. 69.’ 
Marcabo. Inf. xxviii. 75. 
Marcellus. Pur. vi. 125. 


Xviii. to 


Pur. xxii. 113. 
Pur. vi. 72. 


Marie Antoinette. Inf. xx. n. 
Marchese, Messer. Pur. xxiv. 31. 
aoe Inf. iv. 128. Pur. i. 79. 


‘mad Lombardo. Pur. xvi. 46, 130. 


Maremma. Inf. xiii. n.; xxv. 19; 
xxix. 48. Pur. v. 134; xiii. n. 

Margaret, Queen. Pur. vii. 128. 

Margaret of Trent. Inf. xxviii. n. 

Maro (Virgil). Pur. xxii. 148, n 
ariana. Pur. vii. n. 

Marius. Pur. xiii. n. 


5g Obizzo da Esti. Inf. xviii. 


tae is William (Guglielmo) of 


Monferrato. | Pur. vii. 134. 
Mars. Inf. xiii. 143; xxiv. 145; 
xxxi. 51. Pur. xii. 31. Para. iv. 
635 viii. 132; xvi. 34, 49, 1453 
xxii. 146. 
Mars, planet. Pur. ii. 14. Para. 
a 100; XVi. 375 XVii. 773 XXvVii. 
Mlarscilles. Pur. xviii. 182. Para. 
ix. 88. 
Marsyas. Para. i. 20. 
Martin IV., Pope. Pur. xxiv. 22. 
Mary, The Blessed Virgin. Pur. 
iii. 393 V. 1013 vill. 373 X. 41, 50; 
_ Xili. 50; xv. 88; xviii. 1603 XX: 
195 97; XXiL 1423 xxxiii. 6. Para. 
ili. 122; iv. 303 xi. 715 xiii. 845 
xiv. 363; Xv. 1333 Xvi. 34; xxiii. 
. 88, 111, 126, 1375 XXV. 128; xxxi. 
100, 116, 127} XXXil. 4, 29, 85, 955 





104, 107, 113, 119 134} xxxili. 1, 
Pur. xxiii. 


Pur. 


4. 
Mary, Hebrew woman. 


30. 

Marzucco degli Scoringiani. 
vi. 1 

Mascheroni, Sassolo. Inf. XXxii. 65. 

Matilda, Countess. Pur. xxviii. 413 
XXXi. 923 xXxxii. 28, 82; xxxiii. 
IIg, 121. 

Matteo d’ Acquasparta, Cardinal. 
Para. xii. 124 


Matthias, St., Aicnile, Inf. xix. 94. 

Maximus Valerius. ur. xv., et 
aliubi. 

Medea. * Inf. xviii. 96. Para. ii. n. 


Medicina, Pier da. Inf. xxviii. 73. 
Mediterranean Alps. Pur. iii. n. 


Mediterranean Sea. Inf. xiii, n. 
Para. ix. 82. 

Medusa. Inf. ix. 52. 

Megera. Inf. ix. 46. 

Melchisedec. Para. viii. 125. 

Meleager. Pur. xxv. 22 


aggre he and Learchus. Inf. xxx. 
Acliscee. Para. xiii. 125. 
Menalippus. Inf. xxxii. 131. 
Menelaus, Inf. xix. n. 

Mercury. Para. iv.,63. 

cca reas planet. Para. v. 963 xxii. 


Metellus. Pur. ix. 138. 
Mezentius. Pur. v. n. 


Michaei, Archangel. Inf. vii. 2. 


Pur. v. n.; xiii. 51. Para. iv. 47. 
Michael Scott. Inf. xx. 116. 
Michael a Inf. xxii. 88; 

Xxxili. 14 
Michal, David's wife. Pur. x. 68, 

72. 

Midas. Pur. xx. 186. 


Midian, Pur. xxiv. 126. 
Milan. Inf. xix. n.; xxii. n. Pur. 
XVili. 120. 


Milanese. Pur. viii. 80. 

Military experience of Dante; Ca- 
prona. Para. xxi. 95. Campaldino. 
Para. xxii. 5, and n. 

Millot (critic). Inf. xxviii. n. Pur. 
vii. n. 3 XXvi. Nn. 

Milman (historian). Inf. iii. n., et 
aliubi. 

Milton. Inf. xii. n., et aliubi. 

Milky Way. Inf. xvii. n. 

Minchin (translator). Inf. iv. n. 
incio. . XX. 77. 

ws a O98 Pur. xxx. 68. Para. i. n. 5 


ey 
Miniato, San. Pur. xii. ror. 


General Index. \ 








500 | 
MINO NILE 
2 
Minorca. Inf. xvii. n. Myrrha. Inf. xxx. 38. ~ 
Minos. Inf. v. 4,173 xili. 96; xx. Myths. Inf. i. n.5 ix. n., et aliubi. 
365 xxvii, 124; xxix. 120. Pur. i. Moxie of the buy Para. i. 78. 
77-_ Para. xill. 14, et aliubi. 
Minotaur. Inf. xii. 12, 25. Naiades. Pur. xxxiii. 49. 
Mira. Pur. v. 79. Name, sacred, ee Che. Inf. xii. 
Mirror. Para. xvii. 39; XXiv. 413 38. Pur. vi. 118; xxx. n. Para. 


XXVi. 106; xxix. 12, 78, 1443 XXX. 
1io. 

Miserere. Pur. v. 24. 

Mitchel (astronomer). Para. viii. n. 

Modena. Para. vi. 75. 

Moldau. Pur. vii. 99. 

Monaldi and Filippeschi, families. 
Pur. vi. 107. 

Monferrato. Pur. vii. 136. 

Monforte, Guido di. Inf. xii. 119. 

Mongibello (Mt. A£tna). Inf. xiv. 
56. Para. viii. 67. 

Montagna, cavalier. Inf. xxvii. 47. 

Montalembert (philosopher). Para. 
xxii. n. 


Montaperti. Inf. xxxii. 81, et aliubi. 
Monte Cassino. Para. xxii. 37, et 
aliubi. 


Montecchi and Cappelletti, families 

peoueaes and Capulets). Pur. 
106. 

Pur. v. 


Monte Feltro. Inf. i. 105. 
88 


Montemalo (now Montemario). 
Para. xv. 109. 

Montemurlo. Para. xvi. 64. 

Montereggione. Inf. xxxi. 41. 

Monte Testaccio. Inf. xviii, n. 

Montone. Inf. xvi. 94. 

Moon. Inf. x. 80. Para. xvi. 82, 
et aliubi. Kettle shaped. Pur. 
XViil. 76. 


Moral Philosophy. Para. i. n., and 
cantos xxviii. and xxix. 


Mordecai. Pur. xvii. 29. 

Mordrec. Inf. xxxii. 61. 

Morocco. Inf. xxvi. 104. Pur. iv. 
139. 

Moronto. Para. xv. 136. 


3 

Mosca degli Uberti, or Lamberti. 
Inf. vi. 80; xxviii. 186. 

Moses. Inf. iv. 57. Pur. xxxii. 80. 
Para. iv. 29; XXxiv. 136; xxvi. 41. 
otion. Para, vii. 141; Viil. 5 xiii. 
100}; Xvili. 119; xxii. 112. 

Mount Janiculum. Inf. xviii. n. 

Mozzi, Andrea dei. Inf. xv. 112. 

Muratori (philosopher). Inf. xxvii. 


n., et aliubi. 
Muses, Inf, i. n.; ii. 73 xxxii. ro. 
Pur. i, 8; xxii. 105; Xxix. 37. 


Para. ii. 93 xii. 7; xxiii. 56. 
Mutius Scevola. - Para. iv. 84. 





ix. 122, and n.j xii. 713 XXxii. 
83. 


Napier (historian). Inf. x.n. Pur. 
xxviii. n., et aliubi. 
Naples. inf. sa n. 

Pur. iii. 273 vii. 
Bc. degli Alberti. 


xxviii. n. 
Inf. xxxii. 


Pur. vi. n. 
Inf. xxxiv. n. 5 


Inf. xxx. 128. Para. 


Napoleons ad’ Acerbia. 
Napoletano (critic). 
Xvii. n. 
Narcissus. 
iii. 18. 
Nasidius. Inf. xxv. 95. 
Nathan, prophet. Para. xii. 136. 
Natural Gifts. Para. viii. fin. 
Nature. Para. viii. fin. 
Nautes (Trojan counsellor). 
Xv. n. 
Navarre. Inf. xxii. 48, 121. 
xix. 143. And see Ciampolo. 
Nazareth. Para. ix. 137. 
Nebuchadnezzar. Para. iv. 14. 
Nebukar Hypothesis. Inf. iv. n. 
Necessity. Para. xvii. 
Nella, wife of Forese. Pur. xxiii. 
8 


7: 

Neptune. Inf. XX. 1.3 Xxviii. 83. 
ara. xxxili. 96, et aliubi. 

Nereids. Inf. xxvi. n. 
Neri Abati. Inf. xxvi. 8, n. 
Neri, Black faction. Inf. vi. 65; 

xxiv. 143, et aliubi. 
Nerli, family. Para. xv. 115. 
ee Jan Xil. 67, 98, 104, 1“ 


Neogene iets iii. 

New Rome. Para. vi. 5. 

Newson (author). Pur. i. n. 

Newton. Inf. xxxiv. n. 

New World, ‘‘ The ‘unpeopled land 
bles pas beyond the sea.”? Inf. 


Nicholas, Galiebeull Inf. xxix. 127. 
Nicholas, St. Pur, xx. 32. 
Nicholas ee Pope. Inf. xix. 31. 
Pur. vii. 
Nicholas iv, Pope. Inf. xxxiii. n. 
Nicodemus. ‘Inf, xxi. n. 
Nicosia. Inf. xxi. n. 
Niebuhr. Pur. iii. n. 
Nile. Inf. xxxiv. 45. 
64. Para, vi. 66 


Inf, 
Para. 


Pur. xxiv. 








General Index. 


501 





NIMR 


PENT 





Nimrod. Inf. xxxi. 77. Pur. xii. 
34. Para. aie 126, 
Ninus. Inf. v. 

Nino Visconti, : "Pisa. Inf. xxii. 
Nn. ; Xxxili. n. Pur. viii. 53, 109. 
Niobe, Queen of Thebes. Pur. xii. 

Nicos Inf. i. 108. Pur. i. n. 

Inf. iv. 56. Para. xii. 17. 
Nocera. Para. xi. 48. 

Nogaret. Pur. xxxii. n. 

Noli. Pur. iv. 25. 

Nomenclature Aboriginal. Para. 


io Bhs 

ack Pur. xx. 66, et aliubi. 

Norton (author). Pur, iii. n., et 
iubi. 

Norway. Para. xix. 

peta agar ae re Lentino. 

Pur, xxiv. 56. 

Novarese. Inf. xxviii. 59- 

Novello, Frederick. Pur, vi. 17. 

Numa. Pur. ix. n. 

Numidia. Pur. xxxi. 72. 

Nymphs, stars. Para. xxiii. 26. 

ed eal Naiades. Pur. xxix. 4; 


Nymphs, virtues. Pur. xxxii. 98. 


Sivas of Feil Inf. xii. 111; xviii. 


56. 
Ocean. Para. ix. 84. 
Ocnus. Inf. xx. n. 


ag wars a haga Inf. i. 71. Pur. 
1. 6. 

Oderigi ? Agobbio. Pur. vi. 79. 
CEdipus. Inf. xxvi. n. 

ag Inf. xxi. n. Pur. xxiv. 
Sater di Santafiore. Para. xi. 

58, 67. - 
Oracles. Para. xvii. n. 


bisani, Buonagivnta. Pur. xxiv. 


19, 35. 

Ordclaiii, family, of Forli. Inf. 
XXvii. 45. 

Orestes. Pur. xiii. 33. 

Pur. v. 80. 

Para. xxxi. 137. 

Orlando. Inf. xxxi. 18. Para. xviii. 
43, et aliubi. 
manni, rans Para. xvi. 89. 


hais. . IV, 1403 xxxii. n. 
Orsini, teaaily. Inf. xix. 70. 
Orso, Count. Pur. vi. rg. 


Ostia. Pur. ii. rot. 
Ostiense, Cardinal. Para. xii. 83. 


Ottocar, King of Bohemia. ur. 
vii. 100. 
Otho IV. Inf. xvi. n. 





Otus. Inf. xxxi. n. 
Ovid. Inf. iv. 90; xxv. 97, et aliubi. 
Ozanam (critic). Inf. x. n., et aliubi. 


Para. viii. 68. 
Para. xv. 137. See Val di 


ado. 

Padua. Inf. xvii. n. 

et aliubi. 
Paduans. Inf. xv. 
Pagani, family. I 

xiv. 118, 
Palazzo, Conrad. Pur. xvi. 124. 
Palemon. Inf. xxvi. n. 
Palermo. Inf. xix. n. 


Pachino. 
Pado. 


Para. ix. 46, 


; XVil. 70. 
. Xxvil. 50. Pur. 


Para. viii. 


75+ 

Palestrina. Inf. xxvii. 102. 

Palladium. Inf, xxvi. 63. 

Pallas, Minerva. Pur. xii. 3r. 

Pallas, son of Evander. Para. vi. 
36, et aliubi. 

Panope. Inf. xxvi. n. 

Paracelsus. Pur. xix. n. 

Biya Terrestial, last 7 cantos of 
the Pur. 

Paris, city. Pur. xi; Sx 3; xx." $2: 

Paris, Trojan. _Inf.- v, 67. 

Parmenides. Para. xiii. 125. 

Parnassus. Pur. xxii. 65, 104 ; XXVili. 
141} XXXi. 140. Para. i. 16. 

Parthenopzus. Inf. xiv. n. 

Pasiphaé. Inf. xii. 13. Pur. xxvi. 
41, 86, et aliubi. 

Pasquier, Ducange. Pur. xx. n. 

Pastorals of Virgil. See Statius and 
Pur. xxii. 57, and n., and Inf. xx. 


n. 
Patience apostrophized. Para. xxi. 


135. 

Paul, Apostle. Inf. ii. 32; xxvii. n. 
ur. xxix. 139. Para. Xvili. 131, 
1365 XXi. 1273 xxiv. 623 xxviii. 
13 

Paul Orosius. Para. x. 119. 

Paul, St., Vincent de. Para. xxi. n. 


Paul II. Inf, xviii. n 
Pausanias. Inf. xxvi. n. Pur. x. n. 
Inf. xii, 1373 xxxil. 


Pazzi, family. 
68. 


Simca Inf. xxi., 

sea So peng ase Xvili. 82. 

Pea Inf. xxvi. n. ; xxxi. 5. 

Pela (Christ). Para. xxv. 113. 
Pelora, Pur. xiv. 32. Para. viii. 68. 
Penance. Inf. ix. rie 
Penelope. Inf. xxvi 
Pennino (Pennine yan’ Inf. xx. 


65. 
Penthesilea. Inf. iv. 124. 
Penthais. . Xxxiii. n. 


502 


General Index. 





PERA 


PLAU 





Pera, family. Para. xvi. 126. 


Perillus. Inf. xxvii. 8. 
Persians. Para. xix. 112. 
Persius. Pur. xxii. roo. 


Perugia. Para. vi. 753 xi. 46. 
Peruzzi, Madame. Inf. v. n. 
Peschiera. Inf. xx. 70. 
Peter, St. Inf. i. 1345 ii. 245 xix. 
91, 94. Pur. ix. 1273 xiii. 513 xix. 
93 xxi. 543 xxii. 63 ; Xxxii. 76. 
ara. ix. 141}; Xi. 1203 xviii. 131, 


136; xxi. 127; xxiii. 1393; XXiv. 34, 
399 59) 1243 XXV. 12, 143 XXVil. 195 
XXXii. 124, 133, et aliubi. 
Peter, St., Church of. 
323 XXxi. 59. 
Péter Bernardone. 
Peter oN St. 
xxii. 
Peter eroataie: Para. x. 107. 
Peter Mangiadore. Para. xii. 134. 
Peter of Aragon. Pur. vii. r12,-125. 
Peter of Spain. Para. xii. 134. 
Peter Peccatore. Para. xxi. 122. 
Petreius. Inf. xxiv. n. 
Pettignano, Pier. Pur, xiii. 128. 
Phaedra. Para. xvii. 147. 
Phaéthon. Inf. xvii. 107. Pur. iv. 
ms xxix. 119. Para. xvii. 3; xxxi. 


Phasthusa. Inf. xvii. n. 

Phalaris. Inf. xxvii. 7. 

Pharez, serpents. Inf. xxiv. 86. 
Pharisees. Inf. xxiii. 1163 xxvii. 


Inf, xviii. 


Para. xi. 89. 
Para. xxi. 121 5 


See Enchantress. 
x1V,..h.. ‘Para yz. 


8s. 
Pharmaceutria. 
Pharsalia. Inf. 

65, et aliubi. 


Phere, Alexander, tryrant of. Inf. 
xii. 107. 

Phidias. Pur. x. 

Philalethes. See “Jaki of Saxony. 


Philippi, family. Para. xvi. 89. 
Philippo Argenti. Inf. viii. 61. 
yee III. of France. Pur. vii. 


Philip IV., the Fair, of France. 
Inf. xix. 87. Pur. vii. 109; xx. 
46, 86; xxxii. 152; Xxxiil. 45. 
Para. xix. 120, et aliubi. 

sons Kings of France. Pur. xx. 


Philistia, Philistines, the supercili- 


ape eager Pur. xx. n. 3 xxiii. 
ara. xvii. n. 

Philomela. Pur. ix. n. 

Phinais. Inf. xiii. n. 

Phlegethon. Inf. xiv. 116, 131, 134, 


et aliubi. 


| Phorcus. 





Phiegra. Inf. xiv. 58. 


Phlegyas. 
Pheebus. 
Pheenicia. 
xxvii. 83. 
Phoenix. 
Pholus. 


Inf. viii. 19, 24. 
See Apollo. 
Inf. xxvi. n, Para, 
Inf. xxiv. 107. 
Inf. xii. 72. 
Inf. xxvi. n. 
Photinus. Inf. xi. 9. 
Phyllis. Para. ix. roo. 
Pia, lady of Sienna. Pur. v. 133. 
Piava. Para. ix. 2 
Piccarda. Pur. xxiv. 11. Para. iii. 
49; iv. 97, 112, And see Do- 


nati. . 

Piceno, Cam Inf. xxiv. 148. 

Pierre de la Brosse. Pur. vi. 22. 

Pier da Medicina. Inf. xxviii. 73. 

Pier Pettignano. Pur. xiii. 128. 

Pier Traversaro. Pur. xiv. 98. 

Pier della Vigna. Inf. xiii. 58. 

Pietola (birthplace of View Pur. 
xvili. 83, and n. 

Pierus. Pur. i. n. 

Pietrapana, Inf. xxxii. 29. 

Pietro di Dante. Inf. xxx. n. 

Pigli, or Billi, family. Para. xvi. 


103. 
Pila, Ubaldin dalla. Pur. xxiv. 29. 
Pilate, the ep (Philip the 


Fair). Pur. xx. 


Pilgrimages of the’ ‘Jubilee. Inf. 
XViii. n. 

Pinamonte, Buonacossi. Inf. xx. 

Pise-cipe of St. Peter’s. Inf. xxxi. 


Pipping (historian). Para. xv. n. 

Pirithoiis. Inf. ix. n. 

Pisa. Inf. xxxiii. 79. Pur. vi. 17; 
et aliubi. 

Pisans. Inf. xxxiii. 30. Pur. xiv. 


53- 

Pisistratus. Pur. xv. r8r. 

Pistoia. Inf. xxiv. 126, 143} Xxv. 
10, et aliubi. 

Pithecusa. Inf. xxxi. n, 

Pius I. Para. xxvii. 4 

Plan of the Universe, Dante’s. See 
Universe. 

Planetary Influence. Pur. viii. 85, 
933 ix. init. i xix. init. 5 3 XX. 13. 
Para. i. 403 iv. 553 Vil. fin. 5 Vili. 


fin. ; 3X 155 xiii. 65; xviii. 116; 
xxii, 112; xxv. 70; xxvi. 128; 
xxviii. 1173; xxix. rr, And see 
Astrology, and Stars. 
Plato. Inf. ‘iv. 134. Pur. iii, 43. 
Para. i. n. 3 iv. 24, 493 X. 0. 
Plato, year ot Pur. ix. 108, and n. 
Plautus. Pur. xxii. 98. 





a Polenta, family. 


General Index. 


503 





PLAY 





RED 





Plays on words. Inf. xx.n. Para. 
rex. 2. eat eaneeeey ot Sen 
Pliny. Pur. x. 

ito andcritic). Inf. 
_ vii. n., et aliubi. 
Plutarch. Pur. ix. n. 
_ Pluto. See Dis, city of. 
Plutus. Inf. vi. 115; vii. 2. 


Po. Inf. v. 93; xvii. n.;_xx. 78. 
Pur. xiv. 92; xvi. 115. Para. vi. 
513; XV. 137 


Pole, north. Pur. i. 29. 

Pole, south. Pur. i. 23. 

Inf. xxvii. 41. 

Pollio, Caius jose Pur. xxi. n. 

ollio of il. Pur. xxii. 57, 70, 

andn. Pur. viii. 83, 93. 

Pollio, Vedius. Pur. xxi. n. 

Pollux, Castor and. Pur. iv. 61. 

Poltroons. Inf. iii. 

Polycletus. Pur. x. 32. 

res: Inf. xxx. 18. Pur. xx. 
Pay et ag a 

yhymnia. Para. xxiii. 5 
dare Pur. xx. 115. 





Polynices. Inf. xxvi. 54. Pur. 
Xxii. 56. 
Polyxena, Inf. xxx. 17, et aliubi. 


tet the Great. Para. vi. 53, et 


Ponthieu. Pur. xx. 66. 
Populonium, Inf. xiii. n. 

Porta Sole, of Perugia. Para. xi. 47. 
Portugal. Para. xix. 139. 
os _ Xxvi. 1. 


n.; wav 123; xxix. 

Pragmatic nction. 

Prague. Para. xix. 

Prairie-du-Chien, Micktean, treaty 
at. Para. vi. n. 

Prata, Guido da. Pur. xiv. 104. 

Prato. Inf. xxvi. 9, et aliubi. 

Pratom: Pur. v. 116. 

Prayers for the Dead. Pur. iii. fin. ; 
xiv. 1333 V. 70, 89; vi. 26, 28-48; 
Vili. 70; xi. 573 xili. 93, 124-9, 


“oy 


142-7; Xvi. 50; XIX. 953 XX. 37; 
40% XXii. 143; xxvi. 127, 145. 
Para. i. 37, et : 

Prayer, Lord’s. Pur. xi. init. 


Preachers. Para. xxix. 

Prejudice and bias. Para. xiii. 120. 
Pressa, family. Para. xvi. 100. 
Priam, king of Troy. Inf. xxx. 15. 





Primum Mobile. 
106, et aliubi. 

Principalities, celestial creations. 
Para. i. n.; viii. 343 xxviii. 125; 


Para. i. n.3 xxvii. 


xxix. 

Priscian. Inf. xv. 1 

Procession of the Church Triumph- 
ant. Pur. xxix. and xxx. 

Procne. Pur. ix. n.;_ XVil. 19. 

Prodigal, the. Inf. vii. Pur. xx. 

Proserpine. Inf. ix. 44; x. 80. Pur. 
XXViil. 50, et aliubi. 


Proud, the. Pur. x., xi., xii. 
Provencals. Para. vi. 130. 
Provence. Pur. vii. 126; xx. 61. 


Para. viii. 58. 
Provenzano Salvani. Pur. xi. 121. 
Psalms. Pur. xxix. 3 
Psalmist, David. Pur. x. 65. 
sec veg sea Inf. iv. 142; 
xiv. n. Pur. xi. n. Para. viii. n. 
Ptolemy, King ai Egypt. Para. vi. 


Ptolomza. Inf. xxxiii. 124. 

Public Opinion. Para. xiii. 119. 

Puccio Sciancato. Inf. xxv. 148, 

Pulci (poet). Inf. xvi. n. 

Pygmalion. Pur. xx. 103. 

Pylades. Pur. xiii. n. 

Pyramus. Pur. xxvii. 38; xxxiii. 69. 

Pyrenees. Para. xix. 144. 

Pyrrha. Pur. xxxiii. n. 

Pyrrhus. Inf. xii. 135; 
Para. vi. 

Pythagoras. 


(ee Gulf of. Inf. ix. 113. 


xxx. TL 


‘Para. viii. n. 


uinctius Cincinnatus. Para. vi. 46, 
uirinus (Romulus). Para. viii. 131. 


Rabanus. _ Para. xii. 139. 

Rachel. Inf. ii. 102; iv. 60. Pur. 
Xxvii. 104. Para. xxxii. 8. 

Radegunde, St. Inf. xxxiv. n. 

Rahab. Para. ix. 116. 


Ram, sign be poe naa Pur. viii. 
134. 

Raphael, Archangel: ” Para, iv. 48. 

Raphael (artist). Inf. iv. n. 

Rascia, part of Hungary. Para. 
xix. 140. 

Ravenna. Inf. v. 973; xxvii. 40. 


Para. vi. 61; xxi. 123, et aliubi. 
Ravignani, family. Para. xvi. 97- 
Raymond Berenger. Para. vi. 134 
Raynouard (critic). Inf. xxviii. n. 

ur. XXvi. n. 
Rebecca. Para. xxxii. 10. 
Red Sea. Inf. xxiv. go. Pur. xviii. 

134. Para, vi. 79. 


504 


General Index. 








REDE SARA 
Redemption. Para. vii. Romena. Inf. xxx. 73. : 
Rehoboam. Pur. xii. 46. — of Provence. Para. vi. 128, 
arg Inf. xviii. 61. Pur. xiv. 


pa (son-in-law of St. Louis). 
Para. xviii. 46. 

Resurrection of the Body. 
n.; vi. 943,x. n. Para. iv. 24; 
Xiv. 43} xxiv. 19; xxx. 35. And 
see Glorified Earthly Body of the 
Resurrection. 

Return of the Soul to its origin in 
Heaven. Pur. xviii. n. Para. iv. 
24, et aliubi. 


Inf. i iv. 


Rhea. Inf. xiv. 100; xvii. n. 

Rhine. Inf. xxxi.n. Para. vi. 58. 

oe oe age the (Phyllis). Para. 

Rhone. “Inf. ix. x12. Para. vi. 60; 
vill. 59. 

Rialto (Venice). Para. ix. 26. 


Riccardo da Camino, or Cammino. 
Para. ix. 50. 
reer ARpebegeeen 


Richard ‘of St. ine Para. x. 131. 
Rienzi. Inf. i 

Rigogliosi, fanly, Pur. xxiv. 31. 
Rimini. Inf. xxviii. 86. 

Rinier da Calboli. Pur. xiv. 88. 
Rinier da Corneto. Inf. xii. 137. 
Rinier Pazzo. Inf. xii. 137. 
a Mountains. Pur. 


Inf. iv. n. ; 


XXVi. 


Rinkais. Para. xx. 68. 

Rixier. Para. i. n. 

Robert Guiscard. 14. 
Para. xviii. 48. 

a King of Apulia. Para. viii. 


Inf. xxviii. 


rphees (poet). Inf. xiii. 
aliubi. 

Romagna. Inf. xxvii. 28, 373 xxxiii. 
154. Pur. v. 69; xiv. re XV. 44. 

Roman Civil Code. Inf. xix. n. 

ur. Vii. n. 

Roman History, Justinian’s Review 
of.- Para. vi. 

Romans. Inf. xv. 77; xviii. 28; 
Xxvi. 60; xxviii. ro. Para. vi. 44; 
xix. 102. 

waseR women, ancient. Pur. xxii. 


n., et 


145. 

Some, City. Inf. i. 713 ii. 20; xiv. 
105; xxxi. 59. Pur. vi. 1125 xvi. 
106, 1273 Xvili. 80; xxi. 88 ; ‘xxix. 
IIS; XXXii. 102. Para. Vi. 73 ix. 
140; Xv. 126; xvi. 10; Xxiv. 63; 
XXVli. 25, 623 xxxi. 34, et aliubi. 

Rome, new. See Constantinople. 





pie eabdans St. Para. xxii. 


Romulus (Quirinus). Para. viii. 131. 

Roncesvalles. I Xxxi. 17, et 
aliubi. 

Rood. See Cross. 

Rose (poet). Inf. xvii. n. 


Rose of the Blessed. Para. xxx., 
xxxi., xxxli., and notes, 

Rowe (poet). Inf. xiv. n., et aliubi. 

Rossetti (family of critics). Inf. iv. 
n., et aliubi. 

Rubaconte. 

Rubicante, demon. 
Xxii. 40. 

Rubicon. Para. vi. 62. 

Rudolph I., Emperor of Germany. 
nis vi. 1035 vii. 94. Para. viii. 


eee gieri, Ubaldini. Inf, xxxiii. 14. 
Be tie Just. Para. xviii., xix., and 


Pur. xii. 102. 
Inf. xxi. 123; 


Rumpler (demon). Inf. xxi. n. 
Ruskin. Inf. iii. n., et aliubi. 
Rusticucci, Jacopo. Inf. vi. 80; 
xvi. 
Ruth. Para. xxxii. 11. 
Sabellius. Para. xiii. 127. 
Sabellus. Inf. xxv. gs. 
—— the, their women. Para. 


Sacchetti, fale: Inf. xxix. n. 


Para. xvi. 

Saints of the : Old and New Testa- 
ment. Para. xxxii. 

Saints. See special headings. 

Saladin. Inf. iv. 129. 

Salamanca. Inf, xx. n. 

Salimbeni, Nicholas. Inf. xxix. 127. 

Salterello, Lapo. Para. xv. 128. 

Salvani, Provenzano, Pur. xi, 121. 

Salvini (critic). Para. vii. n. 

Samaria, women of. Pur. xxi. 3. 

Samuel, Prophet. Para. iv. 29, 

Sanleo. Pur. iv. 25, 

Sannello, family. Para. xvi: 

Santafiore, Counts of. Pur. vi. 111; 


xi. 58, 67. 

Santerno. Inf. xxvii. 49. 

Saéne. Para. vi. 59. 

Sapia, lady of Sienna. Pur. xiii. 109. 

Sapphira and Ananias. Pur. xx. 
Iri2. 

Saracens. Inf. xxvii. 87. Pur. 
Xxili, 103 


Sarah, wife of Abraham. Para. 


Xxxii. 10. 


General Index. 


505 





SARD 


SMIL 





Sardanapalus. Para. xv. 107. 
Sardinia. Inf. xxii. 89; xxix. 48. 
Pur. xxiii. 94 


ix. 127. And'see Lucifer. 
Saturn. Inf. iii. n.; xiv. 96. Para. 


Saturn, planet. Pur. xix. 3. Para. 
3 xxii. 146. 
Saul. ur. xii. 40. 


Savena. Inf. xviii. 61. 

Savio. Inf. xxvii. 52. 

Scavola, Mutius. Para. iv. 84. 

Scala, Alberto della. Pur. xviii. 121. 

Scala’ Bartolommeo della.- Para. 
xvii. 

Scala, Gai'G ‘Grande della. Inf. i. ror. 
Para. xvii. 76. 

Scales, sign of the Zodiac. 
init. 


Pur. ii. 
Pur. xxvii. init. Para. xxix. 


init 
Scarmiglione (demon). Inf. XXxi. 105. 
Scartazzini (critic), Para. iv. n. 
schicchi, Gianni. Inf. xxx. 32. 
Schismatics. Inf. xxviii. and xxix. 
Sciancato, Puccio. Inf. xxv. 148. 
Scipio Africanus. Inf. xxxi. 116. 
ur. xxix. 116. Para. vi. 53; xxvii. 
61 
Sclavonian winds. Pur. xxx. 87. 
Scolari (critic). Inf. iv. n., et shubi 
Scorpion, sig of the Zodiac Pur. 
ix. 53 XVill. 793 XXv. 
Scott, Michael. Inf. = 116. 
Scott, Sir Walter. Inf. xx. n. 
ee inspiration of. Para. xx. 





MMNMMNMM 


Been, family. Inf. xvii. 64. 
Seyros. Inf. xxvi.n. Pur. ix. 38. 
Setucerk. Inf. xviii. 


Seine. Para, vi. 59; xix. 118. 
Semele. Inf. xxx. io Para. xxi. 6. 
Semiramis. Inf. v. 


Senatus_Consultum ee Bacchinali- 
bus. Pur. xvi. n. 

Seneca. Inf. iv. 141. 

Sennaar. Pur. xii. 36. 

Sennacherib. Pur. xii. 53. 

Serapis. Pur. i. n.; ii. n. 

Seraphim, celestial creations. Para. 
i. n, 3 iv. 285 vili. 275 ix. 77 3 XXvili. 
72, 99; xxix. 

Serchio. Inf. xxi. 49. 

Serpents. Inf. xxiv., xxv. 

Serpents of Libya. ‘inf, xxiv. 8s. 

Servius (commentator). Inf. xx. n. 

Sestos. Pur. xxviii. 74. 

Seven re Thebes, the. Inf. 
xiv. 68, et aliubi. 








Seville. Inf. xx. 125; xxvi. 110. 
Sextus I., Po Para. xxvii. 44. 


Sextus Claudius Nero. Inf. xii. 
135, and n. 

Sextus Tarquinius. Inf. xii. 135, 
and n. 

Sextus, son of Pompey. Inf. xii. 


135, and n. 
Shade-Body, definition of. 


Pur. 
xxv. 76, 90. 
Shikespeare. Inf. iii. n. Para. i. 
n., et aliubi. 
Skaw, Ss A. (poet). Para. 
XXV 


Shelley fateth Inf. xxi. n. 

peat: F. (philosopher). Inf. 
XXvii. 

Shooting "Star (Tecumseh). 
vi. 


Si, Sipa. Inf. xxx. 80. 
Sibyl, Cumezan. Inf. xvii. n. Para. 


Para. 


xxxili. 66, et aliubi. And see 
Pollio. 
Sichzus. Inf. v. 62. Para. ix. 98. 


Sicilian Vespers. 
Para. viii. 75. 
Sicily. Inf. xii. 108. Pur. iii. 116. 
Para. viii. 67; xix. 131, et aliubi. 
Sienna. Inf. xvi. n.; xxix. 110, 129; 
xxx. n. Pur. v. 1343 xi. III, 123, 

134, et aliubi. 
Siennese, Inf. xxix. 122, 134. Pur. 
xi. 653 xiii. 106, 118, 151. 
Siestri. Pur. xix. 100. 
Sifanti, or Fifanti, family. 
XVi. 104. 
Sigebert, Sigier. Para. x. 136, and n. 
Sile. Para. ix. 49. 
Silvius. Inf. ii. 13. 
Simifonte. Para. xvi. 62. 
Simois. Para. vi. 67. 
Simon, Inf. xix., xxi. n. 
Simonides. Pur. xxii. 107. 
Simon Magus. Inf. xix. 1. 
XXX. 147. 
Sinigaglia. Para. xvi. 


Inf. xix. 99, n. 


Para. 


Para. 


Sinon, Inf. xxx. 98, et Siubi. 
Siren. Pur. xix. 19. 

Sirens. Pur. xxxi. 45. Para. xii. 8. 
Sirocco. Pur. xxviii. 21. 


Sismondi, family. Inf. xxxiii. 32. 

Sismondi (historian). Inf. xii. n. 

Sitting Buffalo, Sitting Bull (Taton- 
wy nee Para. vi. n. 

Sizii, famil Para. xvi. 108. 

Slothful, he. Inf. vii., viii. Pur. 
XVil., XViil. 

Smile of Beatrice. Pur. Xxxii. init. ; 
XXXili. 95. Para. i. 95; vi. n. 5 XXiii. 
46, 69. And see Laughter. 


506 


General Index. 





SNOW 


TELE 





Snow. Para. vii. 68. 
Society. Para. viii. 115. 
Socrates. Inf. iv. 134. , 
i Inf. xi. 50, Pur. xxvi. 40, 
Bcdounites: Inf. xv. 

Soldanieri, family. Para. xvi. 93. 
“se renaty Giannidel. Inf. xxxii. 


Soldiers of the Faith. Para. xiv. 

Soldiers of St. Peter. Para. x. fin. 

Solomon. Inf. sof.” Pata, x 512s 
xiii. 48, 925 xiv. 35. 

Solon. Para. viii. = Pur. x. n. 

Soothsayers. Inf. xx 

Sophocles. Inf. xii. n. , bis, et aliubi. 

Soracte. Inf. xxvii. 95. 

Sordello. Pur. vi. 745, vii. 3, 52, 86; 
Vili. 38, 43, 62, 943 ix. 58. 

Sorgue. Para. vili. 59. 

Soul, its origin, its history in this life 
and the next. Inf. xxv. 61, et seq. 
Para. iv. 24, and n. Its return to 
its origin in heaven. Pur. xviii. 
n. Para. iv. 24,and n.; xxv. n., 


etaliubi. - 
Soul bodies. See Ghost bodies. 
Souls. Passim. 
Souls of Infants. Inf. iv. 30. Para. 


XXxli. 44. 
Southern cross (constellation). Pur. 


i, 24. 

Sow, arms of the Scrovigni. Inf. 
Xvii. 64. 

Spain. Inf. xxvi. 103. Pur, xviii. 
102. Para. vi. 643 xii. 46; xix. 125. 

Spaniards. Para. xxix. 101, 

Spendthrift Club. Inf. xxix. n, 

Speroni (critic). Inf. iv. n 


Spenser. Inf. xi. n. Pur. ix. n. ; 
xxviii. n., et aliubi. 

Sphinx. Pur, xxxiii. 47: 

Spirit, Holy. Pur. xx. 98. 
iii, 53. 

Spiritual Body. Pur. xxv. 82-108. 

Spiritual State. Pur. xxv. 82-108. 

Standing Angel (Wakoniyonajin). 
Para. vi. n. 

Stars, F ixed. Para. Xxii. 

Stars. Inf. i. 38. Pur. ii. init. ; 
viii. 85; 93, 1333 ix. init.; xix. 
init. ; XXV. init.; xxvii. 853, Xxx. 
init.; xxxii. 52, 60. Para. i. 40; 
Xxiil. 26, 137, et seq 

Stars. Last words ME Inf., Pur., 
Para. 

Stars in middle Ngege of Com- 
media. Pur. xvii. 

Stars of the South Pelne region. 

ur. i. 23. 


Para. 





ep clematiinn: 


Statius. Inf. xxxii.n. Pur. xxi. 10, 


89, 913 XXii. 25, 64; xxiv. 119; 
XXV. 29, 323 XXVii. 47; Xxxii. 29; 
Xxxiil. 134, et aliubi. 

Statue of Time, source of Ach 
oss Phlegethon, Cocytus, an 

Lethe. Inf XIV. 103. 

Stephen, St Pur. xv. 107. 

Stee of St. Francis. Para. xi. 

Stor > (jurist), Inf. xix. n. 

Strabo. Pur. x. n. 


Street of Straw (Rue du Fouarre). 
Para. x. 1 

Stricca. 

Sucpbaden 

S Inf. vii. 
116, et aliubi. 

Suabia. Para. iii. 119. 

Suetonius. Pur. xxvi. n. 

Suicides. Inf. xiii. 

Sultan. Inf. v. 60; xxvii. 90. Para. 
xi. ror. 

Sun. Pur. xxv. init.; xxvii. init. ; 
Xxxili. 1033 xix, init. Para: %. 
And see Crosses three of the 
Equitiox. 

Sunrise late in March. Para. i. 37, 
and n. 

Swiney (demon). Inf. xxi. n. 

Sylvester, Fra. Para. xi. 83. 

Sylvester, St., Pope. Inf. xix. 117° 
XXVii. 94. Para, (XX. 57 

Syrinx. Pur. xxxii. 65. 


7: 
inf XxiIx. 125. 
Inf. xiii. It. 
106; ix. 81; xiv. 


Tacitus. Pur. i. n. 

Tacco, Ghin di. Pur. vi. 14. 
Taddeo. Para. xii. 83. 
Tagliacozzo. Inf. xxviii. 17. 
Tagliamento. Para. ix. 
Tagwanatekishu. Para. vi. n. 
Talamone. Pur. xiii. 152. 
Talent. Pur. x. n. 
Tambernich, Inf. xxxii. 28. « 
Tarchon. Inf. xx. n. 

Tarlati, Cione de. Pur. vi. 15. 
Tarpeian Rock. Pur. ix. 137. 


Tarquin. Inf. iv. 127. - 
Tartars. Inf. xvii. 17 
Tasso. Inf. xiv. n. Pur. XXViii. n., 


et aliubi. 
Tatonkaiyotonka. Para. vi. n. 
Taylor, Jeremy. Inf. xxiv. n. 
— si = the Zodiac. Pur. 


. xxii, 111. 
Tebaldeilo.. “Int. — 122. 
Tecumseh. Para. 
T seo Aldobrandi. “Inf. vi. 793 


Inf. xxvi. 94. 








General Index. 


507 








Terra. Pur. xxix. 119. 

Terrestia] Paradise. The last seven 
cantos of the Pur. 

Thais. Inf. xviii. 133. 

Thales. Inf. iv. 137. 

‘Thalia. Inf. Xxvi. n. 

Thames. Inf. xii. 120. 

Thaumas. Pur. xxi. 50. 


Thebans. Inf. xx. 32. Pur. xviii. 
93- 

Thebes. Inf. xiv. 69; xx. 59} xxv. 

- 153 XXX. 223 xxxil. jn XXxiii, 88 


Pur. xxi. 92; xxii 
Thebes, Modern (Pisa Inf. xxxiii. 
88. 


Themis. Pur. xxxiii. 47. 

Theologians. Para. x. 

Theocritus. Inf. xxvi. n. 

Theophilus. Para. vi. n. 

Thesaus. Inf. ix. 54; xii. 17. Pur. 
XXiv. 123. 

Thetis. Pur. ix. 37; xxii. 113. 

— ‘* King adored.”’ Inf. xxii. 


Thieves. Inf. xxiv. 

Thisbe. Pur. xxvii. 37; xxxiii. 69. 

coe and Eumenius. Pur. xxvi. 

erences St., Apostle. Para. xvi. 
129. 

Thomas, St., of Aquin. Pur. v. n.; 
XV. 1.} XX. 69. Para. x. 995 xii. 
III, 144; xiii. 33; xiv. 6, et aliubi. 

Thou and you. Inf. xxvii. Para. 
XV., XVi., Xviil 

Throne and Crown awaiting the 
Emperor Henry VII. of Luxem- 
burg. Para. xxx. 133. 

Thrones, celestial creations. Para. 
i. n.5 1x. 615 xxviii. 1043 xxix. 
Thunder - that-is - heard-around-the- 
oe (Tagwanatekishu). Para. 


Thymbraus (Apollo). Pur. xii. 31. 


Tiber. Inf. xxvii. 30. Pur. iir1o1. 
Para. xi. 106. 
Tiberius Czsar. Para. vi. 86. 


Tignoso, Frederick. Pur. xiv. aa 

Tigris. Pur. ago 112. 

Timzus. Para. i 

Time, statue of, - 
n., et aliubi. 


9. 
rete. Inf, iii. 





TEMP TURB 
Temperance. Pur. xxii. 142, et seq. ; Tintoretto. Inf. vi. n. 
XXIX. ae a Tiralli, Tiralla. Inf. xx. n. 
' Templars. Pur. xx. 93- Tiresias. Inf. xx. 40. Pur. xxii. 
Tennyson. Inf. i. n.; v. n. } XXvi. 113. 
n, Pur. xvi. n. j xxii. n. ” Para. Tirynthian car. Inf. xvii. n. 
viii, n. 3 xi. n. Tisiphone. _Inf. ix. 48. 
Terence. Inf. xviii.n. Pur. xxii. 97. | Tithonus. Pur. ix. 1. 
Terais. Pur. ix. n. Titian (artist). Inf. vi. n. 


Titus, Emperor. Pur. x. n.; xxi. 82. 
Para. vi. 92. 

Tityus. Inf. xxxi. 124. 

Tobias. Para. iv. n. 

Tobit. Para. iv. 48. 

Tolommei. Pur. v. n. 

Tomb of Virgil. Pur. xxi. n. 

Tommasseo (commentator). 
xvi. n. 

Tomyris. 


Inf. 


Pur, xii, 56. 

Toppo. Inf. xiii. 121. 

Torelli. Pur. xxxiti. n. 

Torquatus, Titus Manlius. Para. 
vi. 46. 

Toschi. Inf. xxxii. n. 

Tosinghi, wg f Para. xvi. Mi. 

Totila. Inf. xi, n.; xiii, n, Pur. 
i, n. 

Tours. Pur. xxiv. 23. 

Toynbee, Paget. Para. x. n, 

Tragedy, the AEneid. Inf. xx. 113. 

Traitors. Inf. xxxii., xxxiii., xxxiv. 

Trajan, Emperor. Pur. x. 733 xxi. 
Hi. Paras xx. 44,122. 

Transfiguration, the. Pur. xxxii. 73. 
Para. xxv. 28. 

Traversara, family. Pur. xiv. 107. 

Traversaro, Piero. Pur. xiv. 98. 

Trent, Inf. xii. 5; xx. 67. 

Trespiano. Para. Xvi. 54. 

Tribonian. Para. vi. n. 

Trinacria (Sicily). Para. viii. 67. 

Trinity. Para. ix; xiii. 79; xiv. 28; 
XXxili, 116. 


Trissino (poet). Inf. xvi. n. 
Tristan. Inf. v. 67. 
Tritons. Inf. xxvi. n. 


Triumph, the Heaven of Saturn 
sacred to, Para, XXi., XXxii. 

Triumphal procession of the Church. 
Pur. xxixs xxx 

Triumph of St. Peter. Para. xxiii. 

Trivia (Diana). Para. xxiii. 26. 

Tronto. Para. viii. 63. 

Trojans. Inf. xiii. x1 ; xxx. 14.- Pur. 
Xviii. 136. River xv. 126, et aliubi. 


Troy. Inf. i. 74; xv. n.; xxx. 98, 
114) et aliubi. Pur. xii. 61. Para, 
i. 6, et aliubi. 
Tully. Inf. iv. 141. 
Tupino. Para. xi. 43. 


Turbia. Pur. iii. 49. 


508 


General Index. 








VIRG 





TURK 
Turks. Inf. xvii. 17. Para. xv. 142. 
Turnus. Inf. i. 108; xvii. n, Para. 


Xvii. 39, et aliubi. 
Tuscan language. Pur. xvi. 137. 
Tuscans. Inf. xxii. 99. 
Tuscany. Inf. xv. n; xxiv. 122. 
Pur. xi. 1103 xiii. 149; xiv. 16. 
Twins. See Gemini. 
Tydas. Inf. xxxii. 130, et aliubi. 
Tyrants. Inf. xii. 104. 
Typhéas. Inf. xxxi. 124. 
Vili. 70. 
Typhon. See Typhéais. 
Tyrol. Inf. xx. 63. 
Tyrrhenian hood: Inf. xvii. n. 


Ubaldin dalla Pila. 
soe Octaviano degli. 


Para. 


Pur. xxiv. 29. 
Inf. x. 


Ubaldini, Ruggieri degli. Inf. xxxiii. 
14. 
—- St., d’? Agobbio. 


Ubbriachi, family. Inf, xvii. 63. 
Uberti, family. “Inf. vi. 80; xxviii. 
106. Para. xvi. 109, et aliubi. 

Ubertin Donati. Para. xvi. 119. 
Ubertino, Frate. Para. xii. 124. 
Uccellatojo, Mount. Para. xv. rro. 
Ughi, family. Para. xvi. 88. 

Ugolin de’ Fantoli. Pur. xiv. 121. 
Ugolin d’ Azzo. Pur. xiv. 105. 
Ugolino della Gherardesca. Inf. 


Para, xi 


XXxiil. 13. . 
Uguccione. Inf. xxxiii. 89. 
Ulmo. Inf. xxviii. n. 


Ulysses. Inf. xxvi. 56; xxx: n. 
Pur. xix. 22. Para. xxvii. 83, et 
aliubi. 


Unbelievers. Inf. x. 

Universe, Dante’s pis of. Inf. 
xxxiv. 113. Pur. 1, and n.; 
lii. 15 } xxvii. 1. Park: i. 0.3 XXvi. 
139, et aliubi. 
rania. Pur. xxix. 41. 

Urban I. Para. xxvii. 44. 

Urban IV. Inf. xxiii. n. a, 

Urban VI. Inf. xviii. n. 

Urbino. | Inf. xxvii. 30. 

Urbisaglia. Para. xvi. 73. 

Uroscius II. Para. xix. n. 

Usurers. Inf. xi., xvii. 

Utica. Pur. i. 74. 

Uzzah. Pur. x. 57. 


Valbona, Lizio di. Pur. xiv. 97. 

Val Camonica. Inf. xx. 65. 

Val @’Elsa. Pur. xi. n. 

Valdarno in Tuscany. Pur. xiv. 30, 
41. 





rong in Tuscany. Inf. xxix. 

7-, Para. xiii. 23. 
Valdignave in ese Para. xvi. 
Valdimagra, or Li Inf. 
Pur. viii. 116. 


145. 
val ai Pado (Ferrara). Ba xv. 


Val ai Sieve. Inf. vi. n. 
Valerian, Emperor. Para. iv. n. 

Valhalla. Inf. xvii. n. 

Vallombrosa. Inf. xxxii. n. 

Vanni Fucci. Inf. xxiv. 139. 

Var. Para. vi. 58. 

Varchi (critic). Pur. xxv. n. 

Varius. Pur. xxii. n. 

Varus. Pur. xxii, n. 

Varro. Pur. xxii. n. 


Vasari. Pur. xiii. n. 

Vatican. Para. ix. 139. 

Vatican, Library. Pur. ii. n. 
Vecchio, family. Para. XV, IT5. 
Vellutello (eritic). Inf. xii. n., et 


aliubi. 

Venetians. Inf. xxi 

Venice. Inf. xxi. 7. "Pale ix. 26; 
xix. I41. 

Ventura (commentator). Inf. viii. 
n., et aliubi. 


Venulus. Inf. xx. n. 
Venus. Pur. xxv. 1325 Xxvil. 953 
xxviii. 65. Para. viii. 7, et aliubi. 
Venus, planet. Pur. i. 19. 
Vili. 2; ix. 108; xxii. 144. 
Vercelli. Inf. xxviii. 75: 

Verde. Pur. iii. 131. Para. viii. 6a: 
Verona. Inf. xv. 122. Pur. xviii. 
118. 

Veronese. Inf. xx. 68. 
Veronica. Para, xxxi, oe 
Verrucchio. Inf. xxvii. 
Verulanus (poet). Inf. iv. ‘n. 


Veso, Mount. Inf. xvi. 95. 
Vesper angelus. Pur. viil. 1. 
Vestal Virgins. Pur. ix. n. 


Vicenza. Para. ix. 


Victor, St., Hugh of. " Para. x. 1313 


xii. 133. 
Vigesia. See Viterbo. 
ve Pier delle. Inf. xiii. 58. Pur. 


Villani (commentator). Inf. xx. n. 
Pur, xi. n. ; xxiii, n. 

Violent, the; against others. Inf. 
xii. Against themselves, xiii. 
Against God, xiv. Against nature, 

« XV.5 Xvi. Against art, xvii. 

Viper, arms of the Milanese Vis- 
conti. Pur. viii. 80. ; 

Virgil. Inf. i. 79, et passim, and in 


— ee. OO 


A. = eee 





i i eR i we ot 


General Index. 


509 





ZODI 





VIRG 
notes. Pur. iii. 27; vii. 16, et 
passim, and in notes. Para. xv. 
263 xvii. 19; xxvi. 118; and in 
notes. Tomb of. Pur. xxi. n. 
et a John di. Para. xxv. 7, and 
Vixtoes, celestial creations. Para. i. 
-N.3 XXvili. 1223 Xxix. 
Vision, the Beatific. Para. xxxiii. 
Visconti of Milan. Pur. viii. 80. 


Visconti of Pisa. Pur. viii. 53, 109. 
Visdomini, family. Para. xvi. 112. 





Vitaliano del Dente. Inf, xvii. 68. 
Viterbo. Inf. xiv. n.; xxi.n. Pur. 
xxiv. n. 


Voltaire. Pur. vii. bis. 
Vows, not performed, Para. iv. 
- tee eee te ey lii., iv., v., 


Walon, “Inf. xiv. 57: 


sf Charles’s. xxi. 114. Pur. 
E36... Para. xin. 
Walkelin, Bishop. tink iii. n., et 
aliubi. 
Wakaniyonajin. Para. vi. n. 
Webster, D. Inf. vii. n. 
Wendrow, Roger D. Inf. xxviii. n. 
Westminster Abbey. Inf. xii. n. 
White faction. Inf. iii. n.; vi. 65; 
Xxiv. 150, et aliubi. 
White Guelphs. Inf. iv. n. 
Whittier. Para. viii. n. 
Wiffen (poet). Inf. xiv. n., et aliubi. 
Wilde (poet). Para. xxi. n.. 





Will, Free. Pur. viii. 1133 xvi. 713 
xviii. 74. And see Free Will. 

Will of God. Para. iii. 
xvii, 18, et aliubi. 

Will of man, struggling, ambitious, 
affectionate. Para. i. n. 

William, aera of Monferrato. 
Pur. vii. 13 

Williams, ia (colonist). Inf. 
xix. n. 

Wills, laws of Roman. Inf. xix. n. 

Winceslaus II. of Bohemia. Pur. 
vii. ror, | Para. xix. 125. 

Witte (critic). Para. xvi. n.; xix. n. 

Wright (translator). Para. xxiii. n. 


Pur. iii. 32; 


Xerxes. Pur. xxviii. 71. Para. viii. 
124. 
Year of Plato. Pur. xi. 108. 


You and thou, Inf. xxvi. 79, 83. 
Para. xv., XVi., xviii. 


Zanche, Michael. Inf. xxii. 88; 
XXXiil, 1 

Zara (zero), game with dice. Pur. 
Wie Ks 

Zeno. Inf. iv. 138. 

Zephyr. Para. xii. 47. 

Zas. Inf. xxvi. 10, et aliubi. 

Zion, Mount. Pur, iv. 68. 

Zita, St. Inf. xxi. 38. 

Zodiac. Pur. iv. 64. Para. x. 13. 

Zodiac and three crosses. Para. i. 
37, and n. 


The translator’s thanks are due to his son, Paul Wilstach, for intelligent 
aid rendered by him in the preparation of this Index. 






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